


Demon General AU

by djinmer4



Series: Demon General AU [1]
Category: Wolverine And The X-Men (Cartoon)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-18
Updated: 2018-12-17
Packaged: 2019-09-21 17:19:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 18
Words: 28,851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17047343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/djinmer4/pseuds/djinmer4
Summary: What if . . . Azazel had raised Kurt after Mystique abandoned him?  Based on the WatXM universe





	1. Invasion

Azazel sat on his throne and called his children to him. First came Ginniyeh, then Yidrzil, followed by the others. Finally came Jillian and Seir, arriving in a puff of sulfurous smoke. The leader of the Neyaphem smiled to see all of them. “Children, we have a problem. As you know, three decades ago I started a plan that would free us all from this hellish dimension. However a stumbling block has appeared. On the isle of Genosha, where we intend to break the barriers between worlds in a few years, another demonic incursion is taking place right now. Belasco of Limbo has taken advantage of the weak dimensional walls to invade with his army of Dire Wraiths.”

He brought down his fist with a crash. “We cannot allow him to succeed. With the current strength of our forces, I am certain we can overwhelm the island’s government and be well established before continuing our conquest of the material plane. The same is not true if we must compete against Belasco.”

He turned to the only one of his agents capable of leaving the dimension. “Seir, I would ask that you go and assist the forces of Genosha against this invasion. Yidrazil, take him down to the armory and give him whatever weapons he desires. And Seir, take those maggots with you. They can assist in transportation or communication.”

The blue-furred mutant stood, disentangling himself from Jillian’s embrace. “As you wish, Father.” He held out one three-fingered hand to the black-winged Yidrazil. “Brother?” The older Neyaphem took the hand and with another burst of smoke, they were gone.

* * *

When Seir got to the island, everything was in complete chaos. Absent-mindedly he destroyed several Dire Wraiths while trying to see if he could find any one who knew what was going on. He knew he was very good, but even he couldn’t defeat an entire army of Dire Wraiths by himself.

“Abyss! Good thing I found you. Lorna’s got the main portal blocked, but these creatures are slipping-” A small hand grabbed his arm and caused him to turn around. “-through and we need- you’re not Abyss.” She was small and slight, with sharp grey eyes, plush lips and a delicate bone structure. More importantly she was wearing a green outfit with a vaguely military cast, and some metal tabs that probably denoted rank.

Seir took the time to perform an elaborate bow, sweeping the young woman’s hand up and bestowing a kiss on it. “Indeed, I am not whoever this Abyss is. However I am here to help. Take me to your leader and hopefully we can start turning the tide of battle.”

She side-eyed him skeptically but sighed. “I guess we’re in no position to turn down any aide. Follow me.” She kept her hand in his and started to lead him along.

“I’ve a faster way, _fraulein_.” He summoned a bamf (so much cuter a name than maggot, even if Father was being accurate) and placed it in her free hand. “Just think of where we need to go and this creature will take us there in a flash!” She held the creature gingerly but it disappeared with a flash of rotten smoke. Then the two of them followed.

When they could see again, they were standing on a building near the portal to Limbo. Floating in front of them a young green-haired teenager had a force field up, preventing most of the seething army from breaking through. Though as his guide had stated, from the edges Dire Wraiths were breaking away to rampage through the seacoast city. The girl projecting the force field tried to move it closer to the portal to provide better coverage, but every time she did a large bolt of power came out of the portal, pushing the field back to it’s original position.

“Kitty? I sent you to get Abyss; who’s this?” Another woman, a few years older than Kitty, dressed in a red, corseted body suit and cape, was apparently the leader here. Behind her, Seir could see what appeared to be a council of advisers and military personnel. It appears his guide had taken him directly where he wanted to be.

“Don’t know, says he’s here to help though.”

“Indeed I am,  _meine Dame_. My name is Seir and I’ve been sent by a party with a vested interest in seeing Belasco fail in his goal. How may I be of assistance?” Blue eyes looked deep into his gold ones, but she didn’t send him away. The Genoshans must really be desperate. She gestured him and his guide to a couple of seats in the back. As they went to take them, a latecomer appeared. To Seir’s surprise the new arrival resembled him closely, the same blue fur and all. When Kitty waved the man over to a seat near her, he realized this must have been the ‘Abyss’ she was looking for. No wonder she had made that mistake.

“Now that everyone’s here, we can start analyzing the situation.” The red woman (Seir hadn’t gotten a name again) put her hands on the table, professionally ignoring the chaos behind her. “Half an hour ago, a portal opened up above the harbor and hostile creatures began spilling out of it. The Acolytes arrived within ten minutes but the creatures had already begun infiltrating the city. Fortunately we managed to destroy most of the initial invaders, however some remained and more are coming through. Polaris was also able to raise a force field to block the portal, but as we can see, she’s had no luck sealing it in. Not to mention she can’t keep doing this forever.”

“Don’t mind me,” came the shout from midair. “I could do this all day. And they don’t seem able to hit me from the angle of the portal. I just can’t bring it to a close.”

“I need recommendations on what to do.”

There was a lot of shouting then, but then Seir’s guide grabbed a knife from his belt (How? He hadn’t even felt anything!) and used it to bang on the metal armrest to get everyone’s attention.

“Clearly there are three things we need to do. First, we need to assemble a strike team to get in the portal and stop whatever force is holding it open. Second, we need to get the citizens of the city into the evacuation shelters. Third, we need to clear out the beasts in the city. We might not be able to defeat them all, but destroying them now will make the second task easier, and we can mop them up at leisure once the first task has been accomplished. Also, we can combine the second and third tasks together by having the evacuation teams include some military personnel and offensive-type mutants included. Finally, we can do all these things simultaneously by having the strike and evacuation teams made up of all forces, rather than doing it one by one.”

There was some grumbling from the other members, but it seemed to be a good compromise. The military apparently had wanted to throw their full forces at the invasion, the council had wanted to evacuate the city first, then worry about the portal. The division of labor wasn’t wanted, but everything could be started at once, rather than having one group wait for another to finish. From there, discussion turned to the make-up of the teams.

“Abyss, we don’t know if the portal will seal once the summoner is taken care off. Could we use your dimensional passageway to get back?”

“I-I don’t know. I think I could unravel myself enough to cover the entire strike team, but so far the experience hasn’t been good for people traveling through it.” Seir covered a snicker, this explained  _so much_  about the random people and objects that had been appearing out of nowhere in the Brimstone dimension. “And I wouldn’t know how to get myself back either.”

“If I may make a suggestion?” The Neyaphem stood up. “I’m a teleporter, an enemy of the creator of this portal, Belasco. I know the dimension he exists in. I can teleport the strike force in, assist with the fight against him, then teleport the team out safely.” Everyone else looked at him suspiciously, although he noticed the woman at the head of the table seemed quite charmed. Most, while willing to accept his aide, did not want him in close proximity to the heir to the throne.

“Stick an inactive inhibitor collar on him.” His guide, Kitty Pryde, took up the argument. “He’s clearly either a mutant or a demon. If he betrays you,” she turned to appeal to the Princess. “You can activate the collar. If he’s a mutant, that will stop him in his tracks. If he’s a demon, you can hit him with a hex bolt. If he’s still moving, hit him again until he goes down.” The older woman frowned, but eventually nodded.

“It’s not in my best interest to betray anyone here,  _madchen_.”

“We’d be fools to take you solely at your word, Fuzzy.” Seir smiled, causing more than a few people to step back in fear of his fangs. This girl was one after his own heart. Competent, witty, calm in the face of battle.

“I have one more way to render aid to you.” With barely a thought, the Neyaphem summoned a squadron of bamfs. “These bamfs can be used to teleport groups of people. Give one to each leader of an evacuation squad. When you’ve gathered enough people, take the bamf and give it a squeeze while thinking of where you want to be. Whoever is connected to the holder will be teleported along with them.”

“How do we know it will work the way you say?” asked a woman with blonde hair and glowing green eyes.

“I can vouch for the bamfs.” said Kitty from where she was talking with Abyss. “He used one to teleport us from Settle St. straight to this rooftop.”

“Any limits?”

“Not on distance. And the bamfs automatically compensate for obstacles in their destination, so their’s no problem of anyone getting-” He didn’t finish his sentence, instead making a vague gesture with one three-fingered hand. Several people winced. “As for numbers … try not to teleport more than two dozen people at a time. Although that’s less a limitation of the bamf, and more on how many people can keep a hand on the holder.”

“Are there any other questions?” The princess cut off the discussion. “We’re wasting time as is.” There were a few other issues raised, but everything was completed within two hours of the initial problem. Seir was impressed. Unless Azazel interfered, the Neyaphem could never be so productive. Issues were usually debated for weeks, even months before his siblings would come to a consensus. Seir had taken to just staying silent until a majority emerged, then siding with them. He was much less high-strung than the others.

He and the Princess was waiting for the last of the strike team when he saw Kitty separate from Abyss to go lead their respective squads. He was slightly disappointed, the young woman had impressed him, first by being unphased about his appearance, second by getting the various parties to agree on a solution in a record amount of time, and finally by gracefully agreeing to lead an evacuation squad when she was denied a chance to be on the strike force. His siblings would have forced the argument to go on for hours then whined like children on being denied a role in the most important part of the mission. “Should I wish you good luck, Miss Kitty?”

“I’m an X-Woman. I need all the good luck you can spare.” He broke out in a grin at her banter, and to his surprise, she smiled back easily. Gold eyes watched her as she left.

He’d come back here once in a while, when he had some free time. Not many people managed to attract his attention. Now to see if she could keep it.


	2. X-Calibre

The men could not stop whispering. Rumors about the recent disappearances and ghost ships in the area. Rumors about the cargo they were transporting (both licit and not). Especially rumors about the girl.

She’d walked onto the ship, as bold as anything, confirmed that they were headed to Genosha, then paid cash to be a passenger on board. Said she was moving to Hammer Bay for a job. The captain would have just stowed her below decks with the other mutants, but no one was quite sure she was one. She’d arrived in broad daylight, showed none of the fear and secretiveness of the others, had stood openly on the deck when customs and Homeland Security had come by. In all the time she’d been with them, she hadn’t shown any signs of being a mutie, and as far as they could tell there was nothing strange about her. On the other hand, she was going to Genosha and why would anyone choose to go there unless they were, in fact, a mutant? The entire crew was afire with speculation, but no one had concrete proof either way, and that made the men avoid her even more than their ‘cargo’ down below.

Finally one of the braver men approached her. “So, hi there …” His voice died as sharp grey eyes peered straight into his soul. Fuck it, better to just get this over with. “So are you a mutie?”

She straightened up from the railing where she’d been watching the waves. “You don’t know?”

“Well no. We’ve got this bet going on-”

“How can you tell if someone’s a mutant?” The crew member wasn’t sure if she was mocking him or genuinely curious.

“Well, it’s usually obvious, ain’t it? They’re all deformed or something. Or if not, they can do weird things, like throw fireballs or lightning bolts or shoot lasers from their eyes. That’s how you tell someone’s a mutant.”

“And how do you tell when they’re not shooting lasers or hovering in the air?” He was silent. He didn’t really know. “How do you know none of your co-workers are mutants, just hiding his abilities? After all, they could look  _just like everyone else.”_ The man walked away, too discomforted to realize that she had never answered his question.

The young woman watched him go, then turned back to watching the ocean. “I’m such a coward,” she muttered to herself. A moving shadow out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. “And not the only one with secrets aboard.” Raising her voice just enough to be heard by her hidden watcher, she said, “If you’re looking to feed the people below, make sure you steal from the supplies that hadn’t been prepared yet. It’s a little too obvious when the captain’s dinner vanishes from his table.” The shadow flickered and vanished from her sight.

* * *

A few hours later, and she had bigger things to worry about. A giant alien thing had risen from the waters in front of the ship, and a group of alien kidnappers had come out of it and started rounding up the mutants. The girl had tried to lead them on a merry chase, but one of them had hit her with a taser and knocked her out. When she woke up, the ship had been hulled, the crew was gone (good riddance!), about a quarter of the mutants aboard had been kidnapped by the aliens and some strange mutant with blue skin and gold eyes was dripping water all over her face. Not the best of awakenings.

“I’m up, I’m up.” The mutant stopped and passed her a dry towel.

“Er, sorry about that.” The brunette cleaned her face. “But, you’re Shadowcat, right?”

“And here I thought I was cleverly disguised as Kitty Pryde.” That actually dragged a smile out of her companion.

“I don’t think anyone else knows who you are. But I’ve seen you on TV, with the other X-Men.”

“You’ve seen me with the other X-Men and you actually remember what I look like?”

“You were the only normal looking one.” he returned dryly. Looking over his own appearance, the blue skin, the fangs, and golden eyes, she realized her own ability to pass might be something that would attract his attention.

“Okay then,” she let him help her up. “You know me, but I don’t know you. Name and abilities?”

“Nils Styger. Why abilities?”

“I presume you were trying to wake me up so I could help fix this mess, right? Best I know what my resources are then.” She realized that she was now the focus of the remaining mutants. Kitty  _hated_  being the leader but sometimes you don’t have a choice. “Right, as you all know, I’m Shadowcat, and I can turn intangible. What’s do the rest of you have?”

“What good is it going to do? All of us have useless powers.” Asked a slightly younger girl with dark hair in a sharp bob.

“Would you say intangibility is useless?” Her only answer was an awkward silence. “I’ll take that as a yes. And yet I was part of the X-Men and even saved the world a few times. Few abilities are truly useless unless you don’t have the will to try. So out with it everyone!”

“Oooh! Me first! Me first!” A ten-year-old boy with scales and fins was literally jumping with excitement. “I’m Squidboy! Or at least that’s what I’d call myself if I was an X-Man! And I can swim really fast and breath underwater!”

“If we’re going to use code names, you can call me Network.” said the dark-haired teenager who spoke earlier. “I’m a technopath.”

“Vindaloo. I produce gunk from my palms.”

“Pixie! I’ve got butterfly wings! And sometimes people hallucinate when I’m flying.”

She turned to the man who awakened her. “Oh fine. Abyss. And I can turn myself into string.” He demonstrated by unraveling into long ribbons. Kitty pulled at one strand and was surprised by how strong and flexible it was. “Oh, and that guy over there is Shatter. He’s good at destroying things.”

Kitty resisted the urge to rub her hands and cackle wildly. Yes, these would do nicely.

* * *

First, they had to repair the ship. After she and Squidboy checked the holes, she had the ten-year-old bring down part of a hose. Vindaloo was at the other end, and pumped gunk through the tube, down to the hull. In the meantime she had Shatter breaking up the cargo boxes in the hold. Once a hole was gunked, she’d take one of the broken sides and phase it outside the ship. Then she, Abyss and Squidboy would push it into place. Between the gunk and the water pressure, the broken cargo boxes actually made pretty good patches.

Then they had to get the water out. Abyss revealed that after surrounding an object with his tendrils, it would gradually disappear. He had no idea where stuff went when that happened, but the point is it wouldn’t be here. Kitty had him form himself into a large cylinder, then she and the others would fill it with water. Abyss would then close himself up, and a few minutes later the water would be gone. There was still an inch or two left on the floors, but the ship was level again. At that point, she had Network commune with the ship and get the engines started.

When they started to catch up with the other vessel, she told Pixie to fly around the alien ship from a high altitude. Kitty wasn’t absolutely sure how Pixie’s hallucination ability worked, but she’d noticed some iridescent dust falling from the girl’s wings when she first opened them. Hopefully, it would take out enough of the kidnappers to let them get close. While Pixie was doing that, Kitty grabbed a couple of swords from the captain’s quarters (unfortunately the crew had taken all the guns when they abandoned ship) and used her ability to sprint over to the larger ship.

It worked well enough, although they didn’t manage to take out the entire crew. One conjured up a gun and started to fire on them, forcing the other mutants to scramble until Shadowcat phased through and destroyed it. Since most of the kidnappers appeared to be some sort of cyborg, she limited her attacks to phasing through them and causing their electronics to short-circuit.

The other mutants started enacting their parts in her plan. Abyss grabbed onto the other ship and started searching for gangplanks or anything else to anchor them together. Squidboy jumped into the water to look for an intake valve (the alien ship seemed to be using some sort of jet ski for propulsion). Network kept the ship steady while Vindaloo and Shatter kept boarders from getting on their boat. Pixie flew back exhausted and settled on the crow’s nest to watch the fight.

Shadowcat had managed to take down all the fighters either via phasing or just hitting them over the head, except for the female captain. She was actually doing a pretty good job, having used phasing to keep from being injured and to knock out three of the captain’s arms. But finally, the woman conjured Squidboy into her remaining arms. “Drop your weapons or I’ll slit his throat.”

Kitty did. “What do you want out of this?”

The blonde smiled. “I’m hunting competitors for my master’s combat games. Here I thought you were a weakling, but you’ve managed to impress me. Agree to act as my master’s champion, and I’ll let the rest go.”

The former X-Men had an expression of deep thought on her face. She approached the other woman slowly then held out her hand.

“Don’t do it,” whispered Squidboy. “You are so much better than that.” Kitty smiled and placed her hand on his head as if to ruffle his fin.

Then she phased the both of them straight down through both the captain and the ship.

When they finally made it back on deck, things were actually going pretty well. Vindaloo had figured out that the gunk he produced was explosive in addition to being sticky. Network was passing him stuff from the cabin, he’d cover it with goo, then Shatter would use a lighter to ignite it and toss the Molotov Cocktail onto the other ship. In addition, some of the kidnapped mutants had open fire on the aliens. Finally, Shatter managed to hit something important, and the larger vessel began to sink. The blonde cyborg let out a growl of frustration. “This trip’s a bust. Retreat!” With that, glowing blue circles appeared around all the crew members and they vanished.

While the newly victorious mutants rejoiced, the shadow of a plane appeared over them. Most of them cut the celebrations short, but Kitty just walked over to where the plane had landed on the deck.

“Way to be fashionably late guys.”

* * *

Somewhere, on a planet far, far away but not nearly far enough, a fat, green, slimy blob (that looked an awful lot like someone’s Papa Nurgle figurine) smiled at the image projected in front of him while ignoring the apologies of his lieutenant. “Well, I suppose she’s not as attractive as the blue one, but she sure put on a show. And they did work well together. Yyyeeesss, they will both be excellent additions to my collection! I must have them!”


	3. Greetings from Genosha

It was an easy few days after Network got the ship’s autopilot working again. But as they approached the shores of Genosha, storm clouds moved in. They strapped everything down and watched the glowering sky with anxious eyes. Unfortunately, with the absence of the crew there weren’t any real sailors aboard so they’d have to hope they could ride it out without too much damage.

However, before the first drop could even fall, a strange force seized control of their ship and drew it forward. Network tried to keep in control, but whatever it was, it was manipulating the ship on a physical level, overriding her technopathic ability. She gave up and just braced herself.

When the ship had beached, it began to fly apart. But the pieces slotted themselves into a neat gangplank, allowing the mutants inside to see Genosha and giving them a safe way to get to the shore. In front, a man in a red bodysuit and cape floated in the air. He opened his arms and spoke. “Welcome to Genosha, brothers and sisters. Welcome to a place where you can stand free of fear and oppression. Welcome to my Paradise.” As if planned, a ray of sunlight came through the clouds and lit the palace of Hammer Bay in golden light. The mutants gladly got off the ship and were welcomed with open arms by the Acolytes.

Abyss turned to look at Shadowcat, who hadn’t moved. She just smiled and made a shooing motion at him. He followed the others, not without one last glance as Magneto floated over to the X-Woman. “Kitty Pryde. This is a surprise. Last I heard, you were still part of Charles’ school of idealists,  _ketsi_.”

“Yeah, well, you know how that turned out. I’ve done some hard thinking over the past year. I’ve seen Professor X’s vision, but I never really thought about yours. So I’m here to give it a chance.”

Magneto’s smile widened from public to sincere. “Thank you for the opportunity. Ah, may I?” He gestured to the metal she was standing on.

“No thanks, I’ll walk.” Kitty stepped forward, slowly rising until she was at the same height as the older mutant.

The Jewish girl looked around as they entered the palace. “Everything’s made of metal. Harder to infiltrate?”

“That, and easier for me to create and fix. Not all of us can afford to hire contractors whenever something explodes.” Magneto moved his helmet to a hat rack and formed a throne for himself. “Not to mention the other perks as well.”

“Now, given that you’re here, would you consider joining us? The Acolytes could use someone of your abilities, and I’m not just talking about your phasing.”

“What, no introductory tour? No brochures detailing the dental plan?”

If it had been anyone else, Magneto probably would have done something impressive to awe them. As is, he just laughed. “As irreverent as ever. No, no brochures. But I can arrange a tour.” A gesture opened a door behind her, and a young woman walked in. “Here is my daughter Wanda, known as the Scarlet Witch. She’ll show you around.”

When the two young women had left, Magneto turned to Scanner. “Watch their location carefully. The fact that Shadowcat is here at all is a good sign, but she’s one of the harder X-Men to fool.”

* * *

“He’s talked about you before.” Wanda was leading her new guest (friend?) around. They had seen the hospitals where ordinary injuries and those badly treated in the outside world were healed for free. The training rooms where mutants learned to control their powers. Now they were in the park where they could see young children playing together, much as Kitty had done when she was a little girl.

“I guess that’s good? Did he say anything nice?”

“A bit. He told us about how intelligent and courageous you are. How you managed to turn a Beta-level mutation like phasing into something that can contend with Alpha-level mutants.” Wanda tossed her head flamboyantly. “Of course it can’t compare with Omega-levels like Father and my sister, but that’s very impressive.”

“Oh. My. God. I swear you sounded like the Queen Bee of every stupid high school drama movie I’ve ever watched.” A pregnant pause and then they both laughed.

“You’ve watched many of those?”

“A few. I prefer sci-fi. Oh, by the way, Star Wars or Star Trek?”

“Star Wars, of course.” The watched a young teenager manipulate the fountain water into a giant dragon. “He also said that you were impulsive, stubborn and got angry far too easily.”

“Ah, but did he tell you any of my flaws?” Kitty brooded for a while. “There are some things I take seriously. But those are usually life or death matters.” She shook her head, causing her pigtails to bounce in the air. “Changing the subject now. I knew Magneto had a couple of daughters, but your nothing like what I was expecting.”

“And that would have been?”

“Someone more like Quicksilver.”

“You’ve seen my brother?”

“Not recently. I haven’t seen him since before the X-Men disbanded. He was very … “ The younger girl seemed to be trying to find a diplomatic way to describe the leader of the Brotherhood. “Arrogant and impatient?”

“That does sound like him.” The Scarlet Witch sighed and hid her eyes in her hand for a minute. “Okay, time to change the subject again. If you walk this way, you’ll see the amphitheater where we-”

* * *

“So did you enjoy the tour my daughter gave you?” They were back in Magneto’s throne room. He was gratified to see that they were getting along well.

“She showed me a lot of the wonderful things you have done on the island. But there’s just one thing I wanted to see that she didn’t show me.” Kitty had discarded her trench coat, scarf, and gloves. Now that they weren’t on the water, the late autumn air was still too warm to remain covered all the time. She was down to jeans and pink shirt with a pink cardigan over it.

“Oh, and what was that?”

“The jail.” Magneto and Scanner both froze at that. Wanda stepped in, “I didn’t think it was necessarily a bad idea, but I wanted to get your permission first, Father.”

“It does seem to be an odd thing to request.” Magneto tucked his fist under his chin and regarded the young X-Woman.

“The degree of civilization of a society can be judged by entering its prisons.” Kitty put her hands on her hips and smiled.

“Very well then. I shall escort you myself.”

The prison they entered had force fields of energy blocking small cells. About half of the cells she could see were filled. From where she stood, Kitty could see Mercury give a drink a water to the drunk pyrogenesist that she and Melloncamp had just hauled in. All the cells were clean and under observation, if a bit small. Kitty walked up and down the corridor, watching the inmates. Some were asleep. Most ignored her. A few were in the middle of some tasks, one looked up from filling out a large stack of paperwork, another focused on molding a block of marble like clay.

“Very nice. Very by the book.” She turned back to Magneto. “Now, where’s the real thing?”

“What do you mean? You’ve just seen someone hauled-”

“This might be the drunk tank, or where you keep someone for a few days for running a red light. But this can’t be where you keep long-term prisoners. I may have been born at night, but it wasn’t last night. Where are the dissidents? The perennial troublemakers? Heck, where are the murderers? You can’t expect me to believe human nature has changed so much that there are no murders in Genosha.”

Magneto frowned. But after a few minutes, he shrugged. The far-side wall split open to reveal a natural cavern. And each side of the rift was dotted with small caves, their openings blocked off with by electrified bars. Not all the cells were full, but it was clear that there were many more people here than in the area they were in earlier.

“What is your verdict, Deborah?”

Grey eyes side-eyed him. “I’m not the head that bears the crown, Saul.” Kitty turned back to watch Senyaka drag a young woman in an abaya to a cell and lock her in. “Some amount of dissent is always to be expected, but if you have that many people locked up for speaking out, you might want to rethink your policies.” She squared her shoulders. “Well, show me to an empty cell then.”

Scanner, Magneto, the Scarlet Witch, even the returning Senyaka stared at her. “What?”

“I’m not foolish enough to believe you’ll just let me go after I’ve seen this.”

“According to your fellow travelers, you met up with the X-Men before arriving here. Even I imprison you, they are expecting to hear from you shortly.”

“Yes. Yes, they are. But I said I’d give you a chance and they can wait one more day to hear from me. So now it’s your turn to convince me you’re right and Professor X was wrong. You’ll have an easier time arguing if you’re not constantly worried that I’m going to escape. Besides,” her voice softened until only Erik and Wanda were close enough to hear her. “-with what’s going on in the US now, I’m half convinced your right anyway.”

Magneto stepped forward as Kitty entered the cell. “I have some business to attend to right now, but I’ll be back this evening with your supper and my proof. But before I go, let me assure you, that you may be locked up, but no harm will happen to you. I take the safety of the mutants under my care very seriously, even if some of them do need a little re-education.”

Kitty turned and smiled. “Thank you,  _alt lerer_. But better work on being convincing. I’ve agreed not to escape, but the X-Men have made no such promises and already are suspicious of you. The clock is ticking.”


	4. The Conversation

Sooraya paced back and forth in the cell she had been imprisoned. She really had to hand it to Magneto. Every time she dissolved away to get through the bars or walls, she’d end up reforming as soon as she reached the edge of her prison. How on earth did he do that?

“Sooraya Qadir, aka Dust. That’s you, right?” Sooraya looked up. To her surprise, she saw Kitty Pryde, Shadowcat on the other side of the bars. Dust had been meaning to talk to Shadowcat, to see if the X-Woman would help free the prisoners. The fact she was being escorted by Senyaka was a bad sign.

“Yes, that’s me.”

Shadowcat turned and waved the Acolyte away. She then deactivated the barrier, just long enough to slip in. Senyaka remained on the other side, watching. “Sooraya Qadir, I’m here to make you an offer.”

The Muslim girl sat on her cot. “Is this about joining the X-Men? I turned them down once, but now I think I may have made a mistake.”

“It is, in fact. You don’t seem to be adapting well to Genosha’s regime, but that doesn’t mean you should be locked up. I thought you might prefer to join a group that would give you a bit more freedom.”

“I … if I have a chance to leave, then yes, I’d like to take it. But what’s the catch?”

“Magneto would request that you not villanize Genosha. You may not be willing to live under his laws, but Genosha is still safer for most mutants than other parts of the world. He’s afraid that mutants who need help might not come here if the worse parts of the government were known.”

“I’m  **not** going to lie if people ask me about this.”

“We’re not asking you to. But if you could avoid denouncing Genosha on every talk show or Facebook, that would be great.”

“I don’t have a Facebook.” Sooraya stared down at her lap. “Is this offer going to be made to every mutant he’s locked up?”

“No. I’m looking at each prisoner on a case by case basis. Since, I’m the one who’s been with the X-Men before, I have a good idea of who’ll be a good candidate or will get along with them. Not everyone here was locked up for the same reason you were. Some mutants are here because there power is so uncontrolled it’s just not safe for them to be in the general population. Others-” Kitty side-eyed another cell with a flaming skeleton in it. Dust remembered that one, Fever Pitch, who had gotten drunk and nearly destroyed the Fountain Courtyard (along with everyone there). His meltdown had been spectacular and seen by more than a hundred people. “-are in here for the same reasons any other government would jail someone. The offer won’t be made to people like that.”

She thought about it for a while. “You don’t have to make the decision immediately. Take your time. If you have any questions, pass them along to the Acolytes, and I’ll answer them.” Kitty stood to leave.

“Wait!” The shorter girl turned back. “Why are you doing this?”

“It’s sort of like a work-release program. Rather than wasting resources imprisoning everyone who disagrees with him-”

“No, I mean why after seeing this are you still siding with Magneto?”

Kitty sat down again and sighed. “There isn’t any single reason, rather a lot of them that piled up until they tipped the scale. First, I do believe that providing an official sanctuary for mutants to go to is important. You saw what the MRD was doing back in the States. Not everyone can fight. For some, the only option is to run away. Providing a safe place to run to is important, even if the person who created it is Magneto.”

“Two, I’ve seen the X-Men way of doing things. Obviously, I feel they are still doing good, otherwise, I wouldn’t be trying to recruit people for their team. But both Genosha and the X-Men have problems. Clearly, I have more issues with the X-Men than I do with Magneto or I would have gone back with them.”

“What type of issues?”

“Oh, several. The whole thing falling apart when Professor X slipped into a coma was a big deal. There were several people there who should have stepped up to be the leader at that point. Instead, they just let the school fail. The fact that no measures were taken to protect the students afterward is another. A lot of them didn’t have homes to go to or were picked up by the MRD or the Brotherhood. And finally, it’s been more than a year since the attack. Since then, what have the X-Men been doing? Wolverine only recently started trying to put a team together again. In the meantime, the MRD has run roughshod over human rights, mutants are being persecuted right and left, the Brotherhood is making things worse, and only Magneto has done anything productive.”

“Those are … actually good points.” admitted the younger girl.

“Third-”

“You have  _more_  reasons?”

“I did say a few. Not just one or two. Anyway, third, I can act as an informal contact point between the X-Men and Genosha. If something comes up that the X-Men feel Genosha needs to know about, they can contact me and know that I’ll take them seriously, and the government here will take me seriously. And vice-versa.”

“Finally, if I wasn’t here, who would be doing this?”

“Getting us out?”

“That, and playing Devil’s Advocate. Most of the Acolytes and his own daughters are too loyal to even question Magneto. I will, and more importantly, he will listen to me, without locking me up. That’s a very important role in any organization. Wanda and Lorna and the others would just accept imprisoning you up. I might not be able to make the offer to many people, and going over cases is going to take time, but at least I’m trying to make the situation better.”

Sooraya admitted that they were all good reasons. Especially the last. She had resigned herself to having to break out by herself. With Kitty here, it was almost like having a public defender assigned to you in the US. Still with issues, like the fact Kitty was going to be overworked with no help, but far better than having no support at all. Dust just had one last question. “Do you trust him?”

Shadowcat’s return smile was sad. “No. I’ve seen the good. I’ve seen the bad. I’ve even seen some of the ugly that he’s tried to hide from the rest of the world. But if there’s one thing I know about Magneto, is that this prison is in no way the end of his manipulations. He’s got more planned for Genosha. And that’s the final reason I have to be here. When his plots eventually come out, that’s when I’ll have to stand against him or call for help or even just get people out of harm’s way. I can’t do that if I’m all the way on the other side of the globe.”

Kitty stood up again. “I’ll come back tomorrow for your answer.” She gestured to Senyaka, and was let out of the cell. The two of them went deeper into the prison. Clearly, Dust wasn’t the only person Kitty was going to speak to today.

The Muslim lay back on her cot. She had a lot of things to think about between now and tomorrow.


	5. Time Bomb

“Seir!” Ginniyeh called out to the younger Neyaphem. “I have a mission for you.”

He’d been in the process of removing his armor but fortunately hadn’t gotten beyond removing the greeves. It was the work of moments to strap them back on. “What is it?”

“It’s to prevent Genosha’s destruction again. There are a group of mutants called the Brotherhood. In the near future, they will acquire a new member, Nitro, whose ability is to build up an electrical charge, until it discharges explosively. They intend to bring him to Genosha to seek a way to permanently control his ability but he will end up destroying Hammer Bay.”

Seir sighed. He and Azazel were the only ones who could leave the Brimstone Dimension, which meant that Seir tended to get all sorts of errands foisted on him by his siblings. Although he supposed this was important. “So what do you want me to do about it? Bring him back here?”

“No, we don’t have the resources or technology to manage his ability. Either kill him or see that he remains in the custody of the . . . NRT?”

“MRD. Mutant Response Division. Do you have any ideas where I can find him or do I just go wandering around seeing if I can find this Brotherhood?”

“I’ll describe the facility he is currently in.”

* * *

When the X-Men arrived at the MRD facility, all that was left was the cleaning up. “Damn, we were too late,” muttered Wolverine.

“Did the guy we’re supposed to rescue do this?” asked Cyclops.

“I don’t know. The Professor said he was here now, but will eventually end up on Genosha to destroy it. No idea if he broke out … or if someone else sprung him.” The Canadian paced back and forth, trying to see the destroyed gate from all angles. “It certainly looks like the crater the Professor showed me, but on a much smaller scale. Probably Nitro’s work, but impossible to tell if it was on purpose or not.”

“I’ve been reliably informed it was not.” The X-Men whipped about, having been surprised by the newcomer. They were shocked by what they found. A tall man, dressed like some lost LARPer with swords, armor and a fashion sense that was out of the Bronze Age. What really shocked them though, was the blue skin, yellow eyes, pointed ears, fangs, and  _tail_. Wolverine and Beast moved to the front, while Storm and Cyclops fell back, Cyclops lifting a hand to his visor.

“What the hell, bub? You a mutant or a demon of some sort?” Wolverine quickly unsheathed his claws. How the fuck had this person managed to get the drop on all of them?

“Of some sort. Peace!” The stranger dropped the two swords and removed the bracer of daggers he was wearing, using his tail to place it gently on the ground. “I believe we may be here for the same reason.”

“To terrify little children?” said Iceman  _sotto voce_. He’d fallen back with Storm and Cyclops into the support position. To his surprise, the demonic-looking man apparently heard him and turned a smile with far too many sharp teeth on display to the young adult.

“To deal with the mutant Nitro,  _na sicher_. I was here to ensure that Nitro was not taken from this facility or that he was returned before any damage could ensue.”

“You’re an Acolyte?” asked Beast.

“An Acolyte?” The blue man was clearly puzzled. Then a look of understanding dawned across his face. “Ah, like Kitty and Wanda and Mercury and all the others.” He shook his head. “I’m afraid not. I represent, hmm, a third party interested in the continuing existence of Genosha.“

“So now we’re supposed to believe you got visions too?” Wolverine snarled, trying to advance on the stranger. But every step forward on his part saw the other sidestepping towards another member of the party. The Canadian had to stop lest he put his teammates in danger.

“Not at all. I just happen to know a precognitive. She sent me here to see destiny thwarted.”

“If a vision is rendered false, does that mean it was untrue in the first place?” questioned Beast.

“Not now Hank.” snapped Wolverine, then regretted giving the stranger a clue to their real identities. “Well, out of luck bub. The bird’s flown the coop and the only lead we have is that he’s eventually going to Genosha. If we stop him there, then we’re too late.”

“Ah, then I  _do_  have information for you. Nitro’s abductors were the Brotherhood of Mutants. Does that help?”

The current leader of the X-Men growled. “Yeah, I guess we can have Frost trace them down.” He opened the van and wave everyone in. “You-” he pointed at the stranger. “Get in.” The blue man looked confused but also entered the van. “Take the seat next to snowflake there. Iceman, he does anything suspicious-”

“I’ll turn him into a sculpture.”

* * *

“Okay, we’ve got the Brotherhood’s plane in sight. Now, what?” asked Beast.

“Damn, I don’t know. Try to crash them before they get to Genosha I suppose.” Wolverine gnawed on his lower lip. “I wish Shadowcat was here. She could just phase the guy out, and then we could have Frost knock him out until we get him back to the MRD.”

“May I make another suggestion?” They’d taken the cosplay reject with them, on the theory of keeping friends close and enemies closer. No one was comfortable with the idea of leaving the stranger back at the mansion, especially with the Professor still in his coma and only Magma and Forge as guards.

“What’s the idea?”

“I’m a teleporter. I can ‘port to the other plane, grab Nitro, ‘port back outside and drop him in the ocean. Problem solved and no need to even hide the body.”

An unpleasant silence filled the room. “No, just no. We’re trying to save the kid, not kill him,” stated Cyclops.

“You can’t possibly hope to contain an explosion on this transport.”

“Frost’ll mind-whammy him. As long as we don’t take too long, we’ll have him back with the MRD before the pressure builds up too much. Speaking of pressure-” They had just noticed an explosion rock the Brotherhood’s plane.

“Fuck. Beast open the lower access hatch. Storm-” She was right behind him. “Try to keep their plane up for as long as possible. Iceman, get to the hatch and make them a landing pad. You, whatever your name is-”

“It’s Seir.”

“Get over there and get the target out immediately. There’ll be some time before the next discharge occurs; now’s the best time to move him. Beast keep circling but don’t land. In and out people, the faster we do this, the greater our chances of success.” Bobby ran to the loading hatch, Storm’s eyes turned completely white as she conjured a water spout to support the plane, and the stranger, Seir, pulled out a plushy? Then he disappeared in a cloud off ill-smelling smoke. Before Logan and the others could question anything, he reappeared again, this time carrying a knocked-out teenager with white hair.

 _At least he hadn't dropped him in the water_. Thought Wolverine, as he gave the orders to retreat.

* * *

“I’m glad to hear that Abyss is helping you, Kitty.” It was the weekly update between Shadowcat and the other X-Men. They’d agreed to call once a week, if either side didn’t check in, the other would come to the rescue. It was a good check on Magneto, just in case he thought to try something. This week it was Storm who took the call. “But there’s something else we need to ask you.”

“Yeah, he says he did a lot of reading at the abbey. Couldn’t exactly go out and do much after all. So what else is up?”

“Do you happen to know a mutant named Seir? About 180 cm tall, blue skin, yellow eyes, and a tail?”

“Yeah, although I’m not sure he’s actually a mutant. Could be an alien or Fae or something else. Why?”

“He showed up a few days ago, to help us rescue a mutant named Nitro from the Brotherhood. He said he was here to ensure the continued existence of Genosha, so we thought you might know him.”

Pale grey eyes widened. “Wow, so it wasn’t a once-off then.” The Jewish woman sat back. “We’ve met but only once. He arrived to help save Hammer Bay from being conquered by a demon named Belasco.”

“So he really isn’t an Acolyte.” Kitty shook her head, causing her pigtails to bounce. “But you trust him?”

“I wouldn’t say that. We’ve only met once so far. But he’s earned himself the right to be listened to here. If he shows up here again, I’ll tell you what I learn. Same for you?”

“Same for us.”


	6. Chapter 6

 Kitty was woken up by a flower tickling her nose.  Sneezing, she looked up to see a blue, fanged demon holding a daisy in his tail up to her face.  “Hi Seir,” she stretched and yawned, working the kinks out.  “Couldn’t you have let me sleep a little longer?”

“I would have, but Abyss wanted me to wake you up for lunch.  He said he had the list of your next interviews prepared.”  One three-fingered hand reached out to help her up and she accepted.  “Why are you sleeping in the middle of the day?”

Kitty tried to hid another yawn.  “There was another attack last night.”

The demon looked around at the clearly undestroyed plaza, then raised one blue-black eyebrow at her.  “Not that type of attack.  A cyber attack.  Attempts to crash the infrastructure used to cover the planting of Trojans, keystroke counters and other programs linked to data theft.  I spent all night cleaning the systems out.”

“I’ll take your word on it.  I’m not much for computers.”  The taller general linked their arms in a gentlemanly fashion and escorted her down to the restaurant that the others had chosen.  “Still it’s not good for someone like you to miss meals.”

“Someone like me?  What does that mean?”  He tucked the yellow flower into her hair, then used his tail to capture her other hand.  He brought it up to join the one he already held.  Despite only having three fingers, he was easily able to restrain both her wrists in one hand.  “Every woman I see here is too thin.  I swear I feel the need to tie you down and force feed you.”

“We’re not that bad.  Lorna’s just in the middle of a growth spurt; she’s growing up, not out.  And I think Wanda’s figure has more to do with her corset than biology.”

“Mercury?  Scanner?”

“Scanner might be biology.  No idea for Mercury.”

“So what’s your excuse?”

“I … “ Grey eyes looked down.  “Over the past year, after I returned home, I spent a lot of time watching the news.  I was so angry, I wanted to do something but couldn’t.  Sometimes I was so upset, I’d miss a meal or two from the stress.”

“Starving yourself is not a good coping strategy.”

“I know.  But what else could I do?  Join the Brotherhood?  I’m not Rogue, I’m not willing to hurt innocents just to make a point.”  They walked in silence for a while.  “I’ve been getting better since I joined Genosha.  But it’ll take time for me to return to my normal figure.”

“I’m not sure I understand your objection to collateral damage-”

“Of course not, you’re a demon!”

“But it’s not a hill worth dying for.”  Yellow eyes narrowed at her though.  “I am going to order the most filling thing at the restaurant for you.  No objections!”

They’d arrived at the restaurant.  German, so Nils must have chosen this time.  “Spaetzle again?”

“You could try some of the sausages.  I’m sure you’d be much healthier if you added a little meat to your diet.”

She frowned and mimed gagging.  “No thanks, I hate the taste.”

“Then it’s Spaetzle  _and_  Kirschtorte for you.”  

Her frown softened into a pout.  “Fine.  But I get to order for you then.”

He opened the door for her with a smile.  “You have a deal.”


	7. Backlash

 Seir teleported just outside Shadowcat’s office, clinging to the wall.  He crawled down silently, hoping to surprise the young woman.  Carefully pulling the window open he took a deep breath and- “Kitty’s not here.”

The demon poked his head inside.  Abyss was sitting at his desk, eating a sandwich while reading through the reports in front of him.  Indeed, the office was empty of anyone else.  “She’s not?  Where is she then?” he asked, swinging himself into the room.

“The X-Men requested her help for something.  She’s with them right now.”  The smile the other blue man shot his way was a bit smug.  “And no, I can’t tell you where they are, I’ve never been to the US.”

“That’s fine.  I can find her by myself.”  With that, Seir summoned one of his Bamfs.  “Do you remember Katzchen?”

“Kitty!  Kitty!”

“Yes, go find her and bring me to her.”  The Bamf teleported away and Seir quickly followed.  Abyss watched them go with narrowed eyes.

* * *

Seir reappeared in the dark halls of a wealthy mansion.  He could hear Katzchen, humming from a lighted room farther down.  When he peaked in, he saw her putting something to heat in the microwave and getting out a pair of glasses and some soda.  He entered the room silently, intending to pick her up for fun- “Aaauuuggghhh!  A demon!”

Kitty jumped and Seir whirled around to see a teenaged girl standing there.  How she had gotten that close without him noticing was a mystery for the ages.  The girl’s blue eyes started turned gold and she started to glow red.

“Whoah, hold on there Tildie!  This my friend from Genosha, Seir.  He’s a mutant, just like you, not a demon.”  The woman dashed past him, hurrying to calm down the young girl.  “There’s no need to turn into a giant red monster and destroy the house, okay?”

The glow disappeared although Tildie was still giving him a suspicious glare.  Kitty smiled and carefully led the girl away.  “Now, if it will make you feel better, I’ll take you down so you can stay with Professor X, and Seir will help by finishing up the s’mores and getting some of the games.  It’ll be like a sleepover party!”  Grey eyes came up and shot him a ‘Do it or else’ look.  Seir was very familiar with that, courtesy of his sisters.  He stepped back into the kitchen and tried to figure out how the microwave worked.

* * *

“You know, she’s actually right about the demon thing.”  Seir could not figure out the microwave nor what s’mores were.  He had managed to find the board games though.

“I’m still not sure if I believe you, but in either case, it was better to get her calm before she destroyed the house.”  Kitty put down the electronic game, and rescued the plate from Seir’s confusion, putting it back in the microwave to cook.  “So what brings you here?”

“I wanted to see you, that’s all.”

She smiled.  “That’s sweet of you.”  Before the conversation could go any further, the doorbell rang.

Seir arched a brow at the young woman.  “Were you expecting anyone?”

“No, I wasn’t.  Thank God the lights are already off and Tildie’s downstairs.”  She made her way over to the front door and looked through the peephole.  “Damn, it’s the MRD!”  They both dove towards the back as the ringing and knocking changed to the pounding of a ram.

As the three soldiers came inside, Seir made a decision.  “You separate them, and I’ll knock them out.”  Kitty nodded and slipped through the wall.  She came back with one man, pretty much throwing him at the general, before going back.  Seir took great pleasure in hitting him with the hilt of his sword, hard enough to keep him out for hours.  Hopefully, the soldier wouldn’t wake up again.

The same thing happened with the second guy, except apparently, he’d been up on the second floor because Kitty had phased through the ceiling.  The two of them then set out to stalk the leader of the unit.  Seir surprised him from behind, causing him to turn and run towards Kitty.  She let him pass through her, only to hit the support wall behind her and knock himself out.  But not before he managed to press a button on a remote.

The two of them turned towards the door as two giant robotic scorpions demolished the wall to enter.  “Now this reminds me of home,” said Seir.

“Home has giant robotic scorpions?” The X-Woman gave him a fishy look.

“Well, they’re not robotic.” He admitted.  Teleporting onto the back of one, he dug his swords into a joint and almost got electrocuted.  Shadowcat ran around, phasing through legs, but couldn’t knock out enough before the robots compensated and the disabled limbs came back online.  Pushed backward, she yelled at Seir.  “We need to stop the main transmitter and processing unit.  Do you think you could lift me?”

He understood what she meant immediately.  “I’ve got a better idea.”  Grabbing Shadowcat, he teleported onto the back of one of the spiders.  She let go and phased through, short circuiting the control unit and rendering the scorpion immobile.  Seir teleported down, caught her, then they did the same thing to the other scorpion.

Looking over the now useless hunks of metal, Kitty made a decision.  “Changed my mind.  Tildie can have both s’mores and ice cream tonight.  We all deserve it.”


	8. Multiplayer Mode

 “You know, in a real fight the enemy is not going to give you time to change clothes or load your gun or whatever it is you’re doing over there Abyss.”  Seir didn’t turn around but he heard the younger mutant fussing behind them.

“But this isn’t a real fight, Seir, just a practice spar.  Let them take their time.”  Shadowcat’s preparation had been the least fussy, simply trading her boots for plimsoll flats, while Wanda had insisted on changing her entire outfit.  Squinting up at the clear sky, Seir decided to take advantage of the time and pulled off his shirt.  Genosha was cooler than the Brimstone Dimension, but the Brimstone Dimension had nothing on Genosha’s humidity.

“Oh wow!”  Looks like Wanda had finished dressing.  “How far down do those go?”  Then she blushed as red as her outfit.

Seir looked down.  What did she-oh.  He’d never removed his shirt in front of them before and thus this was the first time the Acolytes were seeing his scars.  Slipping his thumb into his waistband, he smirked at all of them.  “As a matter of fact, they go all the way.  Care to see?”

“Keep your pants on!” Four scandalized voices screamed.

“Then hurry up.  I’m getting bored waiting for all of you.”

Lorna exchanged a glance with her still blushing sister.  “We’re ready.”  With that, both Polaris and the Scarlet Witch started to levitate.

Seir threw a knife at the Scarlet Witch, then turned to intercept Shadowcat as she raced up to him.  Behind him he heard the knife doppler, indicating that Polaris had taken control of it.  Just as Shadowcat got near enough to punch him, he teleported away, leaving her open to the blade that Polaris had aimed at his back.  This forced Shadowcat to phase, letting the knife pass through her to bury itself in a tree trunk.  Just as the Jewish girl stopped to take a breath, Seir reappeared behind her, hitting her in the back of the neck.  It would paralyze her for about five minutes, while Seir took care of the other quartet members.

As Shadowcat went down, the Scarlet Witch started firing hex bolts.  These were more difficult to dodge than expected, due to the curving and irregular trajectory, but- ah!  Here came Abyss to cover Shadowcat.  Scarlet Witch stopped shooting, afraid of hitting her ally.  Seir teleported up, high enough that he was just in range to grab the knife with his tail., then took out his swords.  Falling back down, he drove them through Abyss’s ribbons (eliciting a high pitched yelp from the other blue mutant) and into the stone that made up the floor of the courtyard, trapping the younger man in place. 

Using the momentum from his fall, he rolled out of the tangle towards the Scarlet Witch.  Even as she fired hex bolts at him, he teleported away again, this time showing up in front of Polaris, who had been attempting to free the Swiss.  Not giving her a chance to reorient herself, he started hammering at her solar plexus.  One, two, three blows, and she folded over and started retching.

Another speedy teleport and he was back behind the Scarlet Witch.  The knife he reclaimed earlier was quickly held to her neck.   He grabbed the Witch’s arms then forced her to kneel, with enough pressure on her joints to prevent her from twisting around to get a hex bolt into him. “Yield,” he ordered Shadowcat, who had just recovered and freed Abyss. 

The two younger mutants looked at each other, then at Polaris who had thrown up and was still on her knees coughing.  “You win,” said Shadowcat wryly.  “That was amazing.  I don’t think that fight lasted ten minutes, and we couldn’t even lay a finger on you.”

“Thank you.” preened Seir, letting go of Wanda so that she could go and help her sister.  

Once everything had been cleaned up and everyone had recovered, Seir gave them his analysis of the fight.  “First, the two of you,” he started by pointing at the two sisters.  “You both are very powerful in different ways, but you have the same weakness.  You rely too much on your powers and aren’t in very good physical condition.  Lorna, you could have dodged my attack had you been faster, and Wanda, my initial hold on you was very loose, you should have been able to squirm away, or get an angle to counter-attack.  I recommend that both of you get more physical exercise in general.  Start slowly and build up.”

Next, he turned to Abyss.  “Good instinct on your part, to go to protect your downed teammate.  However, two glaring problems.  You need better spatial awareness; Wanda was forced to abort several attacks for fear of hitting you.  Try fighting blind, or at least going through an exercise routine blindfolded.  The other problem is that you’re too afraid of getting hurt.  Tell me, was there any real damage from my swords when you pulled yourself together?”

Nils sheepishly ducked his head.  “No, not really.  It just hurt a lot.”

“In fights, you are going to get hurt, but better hurt than dead.  Keep up this practice and you’ll learn to power through the pain when needed.”

“And what about me, Mr. Backstab?”  Kitty put her hands on her hips and smiled.

“Not much you can do against a teleporter, I suppose.  Your only mistake was assuming I’d take out Lorna first.”

“She is an Omega Level mutant.”

“True, but your assumption allowed me to set up the scenario to get you.   Toss the dagger at Lorna, knowing she’d send it back to me, then use it to force you to phase with the intention of attacking you when you took a breath.  You can’t prepare for everything, but there were only four possibilities here.  You shouldn’t have gotten stuck on one.”

Yellow eyes took in all of them.  Seir thought about going over the fight in blow-by-blow detail, but then felt the telltale call of Ginniyeh in his mind.  He sighed.  “Duty calls.  But I’ll be back next weekend and we can see how far you all progressed then.”

The chorus of agreements (not to mention the applause from the spectators) had him smiling even as he left. 


	9. Hunting Grounds

“Seir? Come back to bed.” The blue demon turned to look at his winged counterpart.

“No thanks. I’m too restless to sleep.” He continued to put on his clothes and armor.

A clawed hand traced a pattern over his bicep. “Who said anything about sleeping?” He carefully disengaged and stood.

“Sweet dreams, Jillian.” Seir left the room, shut the door and to his surprise, almost immediately ran straight into Ginniyeh. Despite the bandages covering the upper part of her head, he clearly saw the raised eyebrow she sent him. “And here I thought you’d still be busy with Jillian.”

He ran his hand through his hair, trying to put it in some sort of order. “I got a feeling in my gut. That I was needed somewhere else. Do you have a mission for me?”

“I do not.” She waited but instead of calming down, the General went outside, hunting for the source of his disturbance. Finally taking pity on him, his older sister spoke again. “I have no mission for you, but you might want to check on those contacts of yours on Genosha.”

A puff of sulfurous air and the younger Neyaphem was gone. Ginniyeh frowned to herself. “This is getting out of control.”

* * *

“Where are we?” asked Nils. “This doesn’t look like anywhere on Genosha.”

“I don’t recognize those constellations.” agreed Wanda. “I don’t know where we are, but we can assume someone’s used teleportation to kidnap us.”

Kitty had just phased through a tree and now was checking out her communicator. “At least our powers still work. Wanda, I don’t suppose you happen to have a better communicator than I do? I’m getting some local static, so I’m pretty sure we’re still on Earth, but I can’t reach anyone.”

“Sorry. I wasn’t even carrying mine when we were abducted.” A trio of small metal spheres appeared in front of them, zooming way too close to everyone’s faces. Kitty ducked, Wanda staggered back and Nils split into ribbons, reaching out to try and grab them but the orbs dodged away.

"Welcome! Welcome, my esteemed guests!” A large hologram appeared in the air.

“Jabba the Hutt.” deadpanned Kitty.

“No, he’s floating in the air. Clearly, it’s Slimer from the Ghostbusters.” Nils contradicted her.

“Rejoice for you have been specially chosen for this week’s episode of  _Mojo’s Hunting Grounds._ This is the perfect opportunity to test your mutant mettle. All I ask is that you survive for fifty-two minutes, plus commercial breaks!”

A montage made up of Shadowcat and Abyss’s fight on the ship suddenly took the place of the mound of fat. “Witness the return of the graceful Shadowcat and her sidekick, Abyss for a long-awaited rematch. But how will they fair when they have to protect the fragile Scarlet Princess?”

“It’s Scarlet Witch and do I look fragile to you?”

“Exactly! The action, the drama, the ratings!”

Wanda fumed. “I’m the tallest person here!”

“Cameras are rolling! Lights and action!”

“Wanda,” said Nils. “Just in case we don’t make it, I’d like to apologize for you getting abducted by chance along with us.”

“Better me than Lorna.” she sighed.

Shots fired at them from the underbrush. Shadowcat grabbed the witch’s hand and started running away. Abyss just turned himself into ribbons and followed. Kitty’s ability meant they didn’t have to worry about obstructions, but Wanda simply didn’t have the stamina to keep going.

“I thought you were working on your physical abilities?”

“I did! But I just don’t have the time to devote to training that you and the others do!”

Still, they kept going until Shadowcat found a clearing where they could regroup. Just as they entered though, she and the Scarlet Witch found themselves on the other side of a barrier … and at the bottom of the ocean. Quickly phasing them back in, Kitty noticed the pile of ribbons that was Abyss feeling around the edge of the barrier. “Don’t bother,” said Shadowcat. “It’s just the water on the other side, and too deep for us to swim to the top.”

Abyss reformed himself. “So flight isn’t an option.”

“I guess we’ll have to try fight then.” Wanda stated grimly. “You beat these people before, we can do it again.” All three of them quickly dodged behind trees as more shots came.

When one of the shooters came out, Shadowcat tried to phase through his equipment but was repelled by a blue forcefield. “Damn,” she said, scrambling back under cover. “Abyss, they’ve probably got your abilities pegged too!”

“My turn them.” Wanda stepped out and threw a hex beam at the shield. It took a few moments but then it went down. She threw another bolt at the cyborg, which knocked him out.

“Right then, if you can do that to the other two, Abyss and I can take them.”

When the other two shooters spotted the Scarlet Witch they raised their shields, but to their surprise, she didn’t run away. Instead, she focused two hex beams on them, while slowly backing away. They tried to get close to corner her, but right as they reached her their forcefields gave out. Then a blue rope fell from the trees, wrapping around the shorter cyborg’s neck and lifting him off his feet. When the other turned to look at his unfortunate coworker, Shadowcat dashed out of hiding, phased through him, and when that wasn’t enough, she kicked him in the groin, following up with several blows to the head and neck.

“Well played for the opening act. But now it’s time for our celebrity guest to debut. Spiral is he ready?” The lump of lard’s voice rang out through the enclosure.

Above their heads, portholes opened and salt water poured out. “Let me guess,” snarked Abyss. “Something to make things more interesting?”

“Of course!”

The blue mutant hauled the two women up into the trees with him. “So who do you think the special guest is?” he inquired.

* * *

Magneto was displeased. When he got home Lorna had confronted him immediately, babbling that Wanda had disappeared. Indeed, a quick scan through the surveillance video had seen his daughter, Kitty Pryde and Nils Styger all pulled through glowing blue portals while in the midst of their weekly meeting.

He’d had Dust investigating every nook and cranny of the island (she’d already been imprisoned, it’s not like there were any secrets left for her to find) and Scanner sweeping the surrounding area. Scanner pinpointed them somewhere nearby, but there was nothing but ocean at the coordinates she gave him.

And now Wanda’s strange friend Seir had shown up, demanding a status report of his friends. Magneto was still suspecting the man had something to do with it (he was a teleporter, even if he used clouds of disgusting smoke rather than portals of light) and was giving him the run-around as best he could.

The blue man was getting more and more impatient. And he had the nerve to threaten him with an obsidian dagger. How was Magneto supposed to take control of that?

* * *

Before either of them could answer. The tree they were sitting in was rammed. Below, a short man in jeans and with a weird head accessory snarled up at them. A pair of metal claws shot out of his hands and he used them to start climbing.

“Logan?” Kitty stared for a second. “Oh God, move, move, move!” She pushed at Nils and Wanda.

As Nils dragged them to another tree, he asked the obvious question. “That’s Wolverine! Isn’t he your friend?”

“My friend who is clearly being mind controlled right now. And my phasing won’t work on him so we’ve got to keep moving.”

“Can Abyss hold him in place? Maybe if I hit that helmet it will short circuit.”

“Logan weighs 800 pounds, how’s Abyss gonna hold that back!”

“Guys-”

“We’re all gals here except for you.” Kitty was keeping one eye on Logan and the other trying to watch for obstacles.

“Gals, I think I see an access hatch. Shadowcat can you phase us through to the other side?”

“Worth a shot.”

Abyss swung himself around a few times, then let go. “One, two, three, NOW!”

Just as they were about to hit, Kitty phased them through the wall. But it wasn’t over. Even as they recovered, the shriek of metal on metal rang out behind them. Within a few moments, Logan had managed to carve open the access port.

Fortunately, with Logan came a torrent of seawater, and the pressure managed to knock him out. Seeing him go down, Shadowcat raced up and phased through the metal tubes. She might not have been able to go through his head, but she could get the mind control device. It fizzled, buzzed then died, allowing her to pull it away.

“Stay where you are!” She turned, and saw Spiral, the leader of the slavers, holding a knife to a struggling Wanda’s throat. Shadowcat tried to get closer, but the blonde had clearly learned her lesson from last time and moved back instead.

But so had Wanda. She abruptly went limp, and when Spiral staggered at the unexpected weight, she managed to knock two of her arms out with hex bolts. Abyss lashed out, tripping the cyborg and then Kitty was close enough to pull Wanda away. The three of them retreated.

“Well, we seem to be at an impasse.” Spiral summoned two more swords. “You may be free of the cage, but you’ll be trapped here without our help.”

“We’ll risk it.” Logan had apparently woken up during the fight. He did a sliding kick across the floor, slicing off the legs of Mojo’s walker, and then getting the guns. When the lump of lard tried to aim with the walker’s tail, Wanda hit it with a hex bolt, causing it to explode.

Oddly, the lump of lard didn’t seem the least bit put out. Even as Spiral teleported them away he was still giggling. “This demands a sequel!”

The four mutants stared at the empty space where their adversaries had been.

“Well, fuck.” Logan sat down and started picking rocks and metal splinters out of his feet.

“How are we going to get home?” panicked Wanda. “My father and sister must be frantic by now!”

“Just wait. I’m sure Frost is looking for me by now. Since I’m not being mind-controlled anymore, it’ll only take the X-Men a few hours to find us and send help.”

Kitty looked over at the controls. “I’m sure I can get this tub moving faster than that.”

* * *

When the strange ship surfaced just off the coast of Genosha, Magneto immediately realized that his daughter and her friends must have been on it. He tore out his palace, not even bothering to finish his argument with Seir. When he got to the ship, the only one on deck was Logan.

Tearing off bits and pieces of the ship to use he glared at the X-Man. Behind him, he heard the bamf of Seir’s teleportation but ignored him. Magneto surrounded Logan with a wall of makeshift swords. “Where is my daughter? Where is Kitty Pryde?” he ground out. “Where is Nils Styger? What have you done to them?”

“Whoah, not my fault this time bub.” Before Magneto could skewer him, Wanda came out on deck.

“We can’t take the whole- Father!” She glanced over the situation, Magneto menacing Wolverine, Seir with swords unsheathed and looking for a fight. “Father no! It’s not like that! Logan was a victim too!”

The metal clattered to the ground, and Erik quickly ran to his daughter to embrace her. After a brief check (plenty of bruises and scratches but nothing else), he asked her where the other two abductees were.

“Oh, um, Kitty was fascinated by the technology. Nils is still trying to pry her away from the control panel.” Wanda did a double take at seeing Genosha so close. “Father, how did you know we were here?”

“Scanner.” That was all the explanation needed.

The Lensherr and Maximoff turned back to Wolverine … who was incidentally still being threatened by Seir. “Did he really not have anything to do with this?”

“He was also kidnapped.”

“Then we’ll call the X-Men and let them pick him up.” Wanda nodded, then abruptly ran back to the hatch. “Come on Kitty, Nils, it’s time to go home!”

The two remaining mutants made their way up, Kitty’s arms filled with what looked like technical manuals. Erik and Logan shared a brief moment of solidarity. “Put those down, Shadowcat. Now that I know you’re all safe, I can bring the whole ship back to Genosha.”

“Oh, okay.” She reluctantly released her horde, letting Nils and Seir grab them and bring them back downstairs As the two blue mutants forcibly divested her of her treasures, Logan also came up to speak with her, while Magneto guided the ship back to Genosha.

“I’m heading back to the X-Men. Are you sure you don’t want to come with, Half-Pint?”

“No Logan. I’m doing a lot of good here. Besides, we agreed that having a contact between our two groups was important. Maybe in the future, you’d consider allowing one of the Acolytes to join the X-Men. Maybe Wanda.”

“Me? Why me?” Wanda had been explaining what happened with Mojo, but had caught her name in the conversation.

“I think a new perspective might help you grow more.”

* * *

 _Epilogue_ :

Mojo tapped his fingers together while watching his pawns return to Genosha. Logan would be a good challenge if they could get him again; Magneto’s power was not something even he thought could be controlled. But yes, there it was, another blue mutant, but clearly more oriented towards combat than this Abyss. Oh, and look how sweetly he acted towards the little action star! Yes, that would be a much better dynamic than pairing Shadowcat with her sidekick!

“Spiral, I have a new target in mind.”


	10. Movie Night

_Spoiler character from later in the plot. Everything is under the cut if you want to finish the series first._

“I don’t get it.”

TJ finished up her popcorn while the credits rolled and side-eyed her father. Kitty looked up from where she had settled on the floor between the two blue mutants and also looked skeptical. “What don’t you get? The plot seemed pretty obvious to me.”

“The part with the blonde twins, whatever their names were. Jaime and . . . Shorsha?”

“Cersei.”

“I understand why the fact the fat King wasn’t Joffrey’s father was a big deal. You humans always put way too much weight on your paternity. But what does it matter that she was sleeping with her brother? The important part was that Joffrey wasn’t the king’s son. Other than that it doesn’t matter who the sperm donor was.”

“It’s because incest is wrong!” burst out Talia. “The fact she was cheating was bad; the fact she was cheating with her brother is worse!”

“ _Aber warum ist es falsch_? Everyone says it’s wrong, but no one ever explains the reasoning behind it. They’re two consenting adults, they can make their own terrible decisions.”

“It’s wrong because it’s immoral. And it produced Joffrey, who you have to admit is a monster.”

“I lived with monsters all my life, you’re giving a bad name to them. And what does morality have to do with it? It was perfectly fine when the Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt practiced it, but suddenly it’s wrong if other people do. Morality is so inconsistent.”

“And what about Joffrey?” Kitty reached up, and the father and daughter each grasped a hand to help her stand. “What about him?”

“Well,” Seir took a moment to reflect, light glinting off his fangs as he bit down in thought. “He was terrible, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it was due to the incest. The other two kids seemed pretty normal, so Joffrey’s whatever was probably more due to how Shorsha-”

“Cersei”

“-raised him.” He looked over at his daughter. “And if your only other reason is that incest is immoral, I’d like to point out I slept with your half-aunt for years and no bolts of lightning came to incinerate us.”

Nocturne crossed her arms and huffed. “It’s still wrong. And creepy. And I really did not like the fact you felt perfectly fine to hit on me even after you knew I was your daughter.”

“I was just seeing if you were interested. It’s not like your an ugly girl, Talia Josephine. You’ve surely had that happen to you before.” The youngest mutant ducked her head and might have flushed, though it was difficult to tell with her skin color. Below her breath, she muttered. “Would have liked it more if it was Kitty.”

“TJ, why don’t you take the dishes to the sink, and I’ll explain to your father some good reasons to avoid incest. I think that’s the best way to do this without ending up in an argument.” Kitty had one hand on Seir’s chest and the other on Nocturne’s arm. The younger girl nodded, collected the plates and bowls and disappeared into the kitchen.

Seir raised one dark brow at the young Jewish woman. “I hope you’re not going to lecture me about morality either. I won’t believe you any more than I believe Nocturne.”

“No, you’ve made it clear before that you find our notions of ethics quaint and antiquated. No, I’ll give you a couple of concrete reasons.

First, a lot of incest happens with at least one non-consenting partner. You say Cersei and Jaime are adults, but most relationships in the real world, they involve an older partner: a parent, aunt or uncle, or older sibling taking advantage of a child. It wasn’t the case here, but for most people, that’s what they’ll think of when they see that. It’s only fiction, but it will still make people very uncomfortable.

Second, incest can have terrible consequences for any children produced. You say Joffrey’s insanity was nurture, not nature. But just the fact he was the product of a brother-sister relationship means that the chances that something went wrong in his head biologically have gone way up. Children of first generation incest generally have low fertility rates, damaged immune systems and are sickly in general. ”

“How much?” Confused grey eyes looked up at him. “You stated that the probability of a genetic mishap goes up for incest, but by how much?”

“For a relationship in the first degree, like brother-sister or parent-child, the probability of a bad gene expressing itself rises by 50%. As soon as you get to first cousin relationships, that drops, with the risk still increasing, but only by 8%. It continues to fall from there until by the time you reach relationships between third cousins it’s would be like having a child with a complete stranger.”

“So you would be fine having a relationship with your cousin?”

“I don’t have any cousins, I was an only child of only children, all the way back to my grandparents. Well, grandpa Heinrich and grandma Josefina both had siblings, but they didn’t survive the camps. But even if I did have cousins, I’d still be a little leery about having kids with them.”

“Why?” Seir had settled back down and tugged the younger woman onto his lap. Kitty rarely talked about anything from before the X-Men, so this was a good chance to learn more about her. From the side, he could see that Nocturne had come to listen in, but he didn’t alert his companion to her presence.

“One cousin to cousin marriage is fine. But when you do it over generations, you can actually end up more inbred than if you’d been the product of first generation incest. That’s what happened to King Charles II of Spain.”

“I don’t know who that is.”

“All you need to know is that he was inbred and it caused him to be sickly and badly deformed.” Seir raised one three-fingered hand as an example. “Worse than that. You and Nocturne can function fine on everyday tasks. He couldn’t.”

A brief pause in the conversation. TJ returned to the kitchen and Seir could hear the water start running. “So what I’m getting from this is that you’re fine with incest relationships as long as it involves two consenting adults and doesn’t produce kids, or if the two adults are cousins at the closest.”

Kitty punched his shoulder lightly. “I’m giving you the reasons why most people,  _including myself,_ don’t like incest. What you decide to do in your spare time is up to you, but I don’t want to hear it.” She ducked her head a little. “Besides, I’m never having kids.”

That went from light-hearted to dark fast. Seir’s tail touched her chin and lifted her face until the young woman was looking at him again. “Why don’t you want  _kinder_? Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but you seem like you’d make a good mother.”

“Oh, I would like to be a mom someday. Not right now, but I’d like to adopt children in the future. I just can’t have kids biologically.”

“You’re sterile?”

“No … “ Kitty took a deep breath. “I mean, I’ve got an implant that should last for another two years, but I’m otherwise normal on that front. What I meant is that I won’t have children.”

“Again, why not?”

“You don’t know why people disapprove of incest. You probably don’t know what Tay-Sachs is either?” He shook his head. “It’s a genetic disorder that destroys nerve cells. A baby can be born perfectly fine, and then six months later, they stop developing. They can’t crawl or sit up anymore. They have seizures. They go deaf. Eventually, they can’t move anymore and then they die.”

The X-Woman curled herself into a tiny ball and shivered. Seir embraced her, rubbing her arms and back, but she was not comforted. Indeed, she seemed to have forgotten he was there at all. “Cameron was so beautiful. So tiny and perfect and my parents were so happy when he was born. By the time he died, he was a wasted little thing that didn’t seem human. And he was so scared. You could see it in his eyes, he didn’t understand what was happening to him. And there was nothing we could do to save him.”

Talia had come back and had taken Kitty’s hands in her own. “Back when I was born, genetic testing wasn’t a universal thing yet. But after Cameron, the whole family got tested. My parents were carriers. So am I. I’m never going to put a baby through what my little brother had to go through.”

Seir didn’t know what to say. He’d never lost someone he cared for in that way. When Draco had occurred, he had killed dozens of his half-brothers and sons and even Jillian and not felt the least bit of guilt for it. He still didn’t. This wasn’t something he could help her with.

Looking up he saw Talia’s expression. She might not have cared about the death of dozens of half-siblings and half-uncles she had never known existed. But she’d lost her mother and that at least gave her some experience with the same type of grief Kitty had. Making a decision, Seir moved closer. When Talia looked at him, he nodded down at Kitty. For once they seemed on the same wavelength because she nodded back and opened her arms. Seir carefully maneuvered the little ball of sorrow into his daughter’s arms, then moved away. Far enough that they could both pretend he wasn’t here, but close enough to help should they need him.

He couldn’t help Kitty with her grief. Maybe his daughter could.


	11. Badlands

  _Timeline?  The author needs no stinkin’ timeline!  Ahahahahahaha!_

“Alright here’s the plan.  Seir, our job is to get Shadowcat in and out of the facility.  If something goes wrong, don’t bother waiting for me, just get her out.  Cat, you’re job is to download as much information as you can on this Master Mold project.  You don’t have to get everything, so if you need to cut and run, just do it.  Everybody got it?”

Two raised eyebrows were his response.  Seir cleared his throat, “Excuse me for being forward, but wouldn’t it be better if she went in alone?  Shadowcat’s much more stealthy than either of us.  She could sneak inside then sneak out with no one being the wiser.”

“And if she gets caught?”

“That’s what signal flares and panic buttons are for.  We’re close enough that nothing short of a fatal shot will prevent me from teleporting in and rescuing her.”

“That fatal shot is what I’m worried about bub.”  Wolverine extended one central claw to poke Seir in his breastplate.  “And I ain’t trustin’ you with Half-Pint’s safety until we’ve spent a lot more time together.  So the plan stays as it is.”  The blue mutant just shrugged, unconcerned with the Canadian’s posturing.

Now it was Kitty’s turn.  “That being said, if we’re discovered, even if we get out they may move the facility.  Wouldn’t it be better if I uploaded a virus or something to destroy the mainframe completely?”

“No, we’re just here for information.  We don’t know if this is really where they’re developing things or just a production facility.  Once we’ve confirmed that, then we can destroy everything.”

“Your mission,” Kitty conceded, but the slight downturn of her lips indicated she really wasn’t happy with the plan.

Kitty phased them through the chain-linked fence then the wall.  They did encounter a couple of guards, but they were easily killed by surprise and their bodies stashed away.  Wolverine kept their communicators though, just to give them a heads up if something unusual happened.  They got to the central area and found a terminal with a USB port.  The X-Woman plugged in her tablet and started downloading the database.

After maybe ten minutes their luck ran out.  A guard came up on patrol and spotted them.  Wolverine stabbed him in the throat, but his cry of alarm had attracted the attention of the rest of the guards and now the facility was on full alert.  “Seir, Shadowcat go!  I’ll hold ‘em off!”

Seir grabbed Kitty, Kitty grabbed her tablet and cable and they disappeared in a puff of smoke.  When they reappeared outside, Kitty took a moment to cough her lungs clear of the brimstone and regain her senses.  “Now what?” asked Seir, rubbing her back to help ease the spasms.

“Wolverine said to leave him there, but honestly I don’t think that’s a good idea.  That Trask clearly takes inspiration from the mutants the MRD locks up, let’s not give him more ammo.”  She folded her hands together and pressed her fingers to her lips for a few moments.  “I’ve got an idea, but it will depend on you rescuing me later.  Are you alright with that?”

“ _Na sicher_.  I do like you after all, and even if I didn’t you’re carrying this missions payload.”

“Alright then.  See that MRD van, with the two guys at the front?  I’m going to cause a distraction.  You sneak in and rescue Wolverine.  I think I saw some cells near the front so come and get me after.”  The General gave her a brief nod and then they split up.

* * *

The two drivers heard banging from the trunk of the van.  “There’s no one in there, right?” asked the blonde to the black one.

“There shouldn’t be.”  They both turned around.  In the viewing window was a young girl, with amber pigtails and grey eyes.  “Hi!”  She waved at them.

* * *

Seir found it ridiculously easy to sneak back in.  He simply teleported to the abandoned room then crawled around on the ceiling and through the plenum space.  Occasionally when he encountered a dead end he simply teleported away.  “These people need to look up more often,” he muttered to himself.

Finally getting fed up with not finding the team leader, he stopped in a darkened office and summoned a bamf.  “Do you remember Logan?  You steal his whiskey all the time.”

“Whiskey!  Whiskey!”

“Yes, him.  Go find him for me.”  The bamf disappeared.  After a few minutes, an image of Logan bolted to a dissecting table and under a scanner appeared in his mind.  Seir picked up one of the automatics the guards had been carrying and teleported in.  Hanging from the ceiling he opened fire, hitting the guards, Wolverine and most of the equipment.  To his disgust though, he missed the scientist who scuttled undercover, set off the alarm and made it out the door.

Seir dropped down, grabbed Logan and teleported straight out to the van.  “Didja have to hit me too?”

“You’ll heal.  Now I’ve got to get back and-”

“Turns out I didn’t need a rescue after all.”  Kitty walked up to them, cool as a cucumber.  When the alarms went off the guards all ran to help, so I just walked through the cell door and out the main gate.

“And here I thought I’d have a chance to play knight in shining armor to your damsel in distress.” teased Seir.

They all climbed into the van and drove away unimpeded.  Kitty turned back to look at the older mutant.  “I’ve had a knight in shining armor before.  They’re overrated.”


	12. Everything is Relative

  _I still have no timeline! Hahaha!_

“Go on.”  Kitty nudged Nils gently in the arm.  “You won’t know the truth until you ask him.”

The blue mutant made an agreeing hum but still didn’t approach where Seir and Wanda were mingling.  The cleanup from the invasion of Dire Wraiths was finally done, so Hammer Bay was celebrating with a city-wide block party.  The other blue person (mutant? alien? demon?) had hung around helping rescue people from piles of rubble and getting them out of other predicaments.  The invasion hadn’t been bloodless, but Seir’s help, both during the actual attack and during the recovery had reduced the number of casualties.

But that wasn’t why Nils was nervous.  He had a question to ask the other, one that had been bothering him his entire life.  The answer could change everything for him or it might mean nothing at all.  But in order to find out, he’d have to ask the question in the first place.

“Do you want me to stay in the room with you?” Kitty offered.

“No, this is something I have to do by myself.  But if you know a private spot-”

“Alcoves, off the corridor at the left entrance there.  They’ve got doors but they don’t lock.”

“Perfect.”  Abyss downed his glass of champagne in one go, then grabbed the X-Woman’s half-filled flute and finished off hers.  “A kiss for luck?”

She leaned up and brushed her lips across his cheek.  “I’ll go distract Wanda.”

When Seir had been separated from Wanda, Nils came up to him.  “Hey, mind if we talk in private for a second?”

One dark eyebrow raised at him.  “Not at all.  Lead the way.”

The Swiss lead him to the alcoves Kitty had suggested.  The first housed an arguing couple, loud enough to be heard from outside, but the second was empty.  After letting the other enter Nils closed the door and at Seir.

They really did look uncannily alike.  Same deep blue skin (although Seir’s was furred), same gold eyes and fangs.  Seir’s hands were malformed (not that it seemed to inconvenience him at all) and he had a tail, but it was easy to see how Kitty had first mistaken one for the other.  They were even the same height.  “So what did you want to talk about?”

Nils took a deep breath.  “Are you my father?”  He was proud that his voice hadn’t shaken or cracked at all.

“I’m not going to ask why, since your reason for wondering is pretty obvious.  However, I admit you look a little old to be mine.  What’s your age?”

“Twenty-six.  And wait, didn’t you say that most of the Neyaphem are thousands of years old?”

“ _Most_  does not mean all.  I’m only thirty-four.”

Oh.  Well that was- wait a second.  Nils opened his mouth to ask another question but Seir cut him off.  “And I only age at the same rate a human does.  I’ve had several one-night stands, but the oldest any child of mine could be is eighteen.”

The younger man’s shoulders sagged.  He was slightly disappointed but more by the fact he still had no answer to his question than by being rejected.  Seir was talented and helpful but rather arrogant and overbearing.  Whoever his father was, Nils hoped he had a better personality than that.  “Well, we’re probably related in some way.  We look too much alike for that to be coincidence.”

“Probably,” agreed Seir.  “But just for the record, I do in fact know who my father is.  And he has a nose more like mine than that flat plain on your face.”

“My Mom had this type of nose.  Besides better a plain than the mountain that sits on your face.  Nothing can hide that!”

“Better?  You mean worse?  At least everyone can tell I have a nose, you look like you don’t have any!”

They left the alcove and the banter continued as they rejoined the party.


	13. Aces & Eights

_Prologue_ :

“Alright, I’m here, where’s everyone else?” Scott looked around from the corner of the hanger. Logan had asked that he participate in a mission on Genosha. Cyclops had been about to turn him down but Emma had talked him into it. Said it would make him look more reasonable. The laser-eyed man was still disinclined to obey Wolverine, but as Emma pointed out, he did owe her from earlier. So he’d play nice for now.

“Get in boy scout.” Once they were in, Logan explained. Sort of. “It’s just gonna be you and me this time Summers. Last time we tried running a mission on Genosha we all got our asses handed to us by Magneto. This time I thought we’d try a little more subtlety. Unfortunately, our resident ninja’s gone over to the dark side so that just leaves you and me to sneak around.”

Scott ground his teeth but didn’t object. Go figure, the one time he was determined to be nice and it would be on a solo mission with the Canuck. He wondered if Logan and Emma had planned this. “So what are we looking for this time?”

“Chuck said that there was a war, which started when someone stole Magneto’s helmet-”

“Wait, what?

# 

“Yeah, he didn’t know how that started a war either. But this is too important to wait for Half-Pint’s weekly check-in and Genosha’s closed their borders except for refugees. We’re gonna have to sneak in, find someone with real power and get them to put a watch on that headpiece until Chuck can get us more info.”

Scott contemplated their last mission to the island. “I think I have a better idea.”

* * *

“Cyclops. Not coming in eyes blazing this time?” Princess Wanda was flanked by Senyaka and Melloncamp. She placed her hands on her hips and raised one elegant eyebrow at the X-Man.

“Give us some credit; we’ve learned our lesson from last time. I’m here to deliver a warning, check on Kitty and then I’ll be out of your hair.”

The Scarlet Witch signaled ‘go on’ with her hands.

“We’ve recently come across some information that indicates someone will be infiltrating the island to steal your father’s helmet-”

“If that’s all your too late. Gambit already arrived and announced that he was here to steal the helmet.” She turned away. “And I’m afraid you can’t speak to Kitty right now.”

“Wait!” Cyclops raised a hand to his visor. “Have you locked him up yet? What have you done to Shadowcat?”

“He’s been confined to the guest quarters only but is being observed.” She tossed him a smug smile over her shoulder. “As for Shadowcat … who do you think is watching him right now?”

The American calmed. She laughed a little. “Go signal Wolverine that you may take a while. I’m going to have a meeting with Kitty, Nils, and Sooraya as soon as that mercenary is asleep and I’d like you to be there to give your opinion on his behavior.” She waited until Scott had spoken to Wolverine through his communicator, then led him in through the gates of Hammer By.

* * *

Seir was surprised by the tension when he arrived on Genosha. Some of it was explained by the recent political turmoil in the world, but inside the palace, it seemed much more personal. Crawling about the ceiling, he was startled to run into Kitty, Wanda and a tall man that he was sure was part of the X-Men. “Oh Seir!” said Kitty, not at all taken aback by his sudden appearance. “We weren’t expecting you to show up today.”

He jumped down from the ceiling, doing a perfect spin in midair and landing on his feet. “I’ve got some free time for a while. I thought I’d visit some of my favorite people.” He glanced at the unknown. “And whoever this is.”

“Seir, this is Cyclops of the X-Men and my friend. Cyclops this is Seir, self-proclaimed Demon General. He occasionally shows up to help here on Genosha.” Seir held his hand out to shake, but the taller man ignored the friendly gesture. “We’ve met before,” he muttered.

“Seir, I need to ask you a favor,” stated Wanda. “Cyclops, Kitty and I need to get to a meeting. Sooraya also needs to be there, but she’s currently watching someone on the island. Could you find her and take her place for an hour while we have that meeting?”

Seir hesitated for a second, then looked at Kitty. Misinterpreting his look, she took his hand and went out to the balcony. “See that man with Lorna?” she asked, pointing down to a tall red-head in a trench coat. He was walking arm and arm with Magneto’s green-haired daughter in a garden of roses.

“ _Ja_ , I see him.”

“That’s Gambit. We want you to watch him.” She then gestured over to a room at the far end of the terrace. “Sooraya’s over there. If you could teleport over and tell her to join us in conference room L3, that would be great.”

“Understood. Do you just want me to watch or … ?”

“Gambit’s under a bit of suspicion. If you see him do anything strange or if he tries to hurt Lorna, you have our full permission to decapitate him.”

“As you wish,  _meine dame_.”

* * *

“So it’s been almost a week now. I’d like your opinions on Gambit, aka Remy Lebeau’s behavior.”

“He mostly seems concerned with wooing Lorna on my watch.” Dust fiddled with some paperwork she’d been trying to complete. “I wouldn’t say that behavior’s completely innocent but he doesn’t appear to have any other motive than stealing Magneto’s helmet.”

“He’s definitely been wandering around at night.” piped in Abyss. “But he’s mostly gone to the throne room and the walls. He knows where the helmet’s kept at night, but he hasn’t actually tried taking it. Not sure if it’s because he knows he’s being watched or if he hasn’t yet come up with a way to leave with it.”

“Kitty?”

“I haven’t seen him do anything other than what Sooraya already reported.” She grimaced for a second. “But I don’t like the questions he’s been asking Lorna. Something seems off about them but I don’t know what.”

“Not enough evidence to lock him up and definitely not enough to declare him harmless. I guess we’ll just keep watching him unless … Mr. Summers do you have anything to add?”

Cyclops frowned. “Just … it keeps bugging me. How can stealing a helmet, even Magneto’s, start a war?” He tapped his fingers on the table. “Unless maybe there was something else? Maybe stealing the helmet was a cover, but for what?”

Abyss and Shadowcat exchanged a glance. “That would explain some of the questions he asked,” she said. “They seemed rather focused on the infrastructure.”

“Also explains why he hasn’t actually made an attempt on the helmet if he’s stalling for time.”

Wanda’s thoughts took a different direction. “Or if it’s another target that he’s seeking to remove from the island. Lorna!”

* * *

“Ah, Wanda. I’m afraid nothing’s interesting hap-” The Scarlet Witch ignored him and shot a hex beam between Gambit and Polaris, stopping them from kissing. “-penning?”

“Get away from my sister you creep!”

Seir looked down at the screaming Wanda, stunned Gambit and trying to keep calm Lorna. “Did I miss something?”

“Wanda was looking for an excuse to lock him up. I think Gambit just gave her one.” Aside from Dust, who was doing her best to keep the Princess from blasting the thief’s head off with her hex bolts, the rest had followed at a much slower pace. Cyclops seemed relieved. “Well, if you’re locking him up, then I guess we don’t need to worry about him any further. I’ll tell Wolverine that the problem is solved.” The American left the group, starting towards the gates of Hammer Bay.

“I’m going to check those structures he was asking about. I don’t think you girls missed anything, but better safe than sorry.” Abyss broke up into ribbons and vanished over the walls.

Wanda approached where Seir and Kitty were waiting. “I’m glad we can finally lock him up. But Kitty, please watch my sister this evening. I don’t want her doing something she’ll regret just because she’s infatuated with that bastard.”

“Of course Wanda.” The Princess nodded and walked off stiffly, still clenching and unclenching her fists in rage.

Seir watched as below, Senyaka and Mercury had grabbed Gambit and were dragging him off. “Mind if I stay and accompany you?” he asked Kitty, not turning to look at her.

“I’d be delighted.”

* * *

“Well that’s torn it.” muttered Shadowcat. “Seir, can you keep an eye on them? I’ve got to wake up Wanda and Erik.”

“Glad to, but what if they split up? Who should I follow?”

She hesitated, then made up her mind. “Lorna. And make sure she doesn’t leave the island.”

When Lorna and Gambit met up at the shore, Seir cursed and readied to teleport on the boat. Fortunately, it looked like Gambit hadn’t actually planned to take her with him, and Lorna was able to recover the helmet and put a hole in the hull. Seir was still about to bamf in and finish the job (no point in being careless after all), when the first explosions went off. The thief must have planted the bombs when he sent Lorna off to pack and he grabbed the helmet.

Seir turned and ran back in. He first encountered Wanda and Nils. It looked like Wanda had injured her ankle dodging shrapnel, but Nils was administering first aid. He then passed Dust, Scanner, Senyaka and Melloncamp, all who were helping evacuate civilians. Finally, as he was running through the water purification plant, he spotted Kitty on a walkway above. Unfortunately, that was when a bomb planted on the walkway went off.

Normally this would barely have inconvenienced Kitty. But the shockwaves from the explosive plus a badly timed piece of falling debris that hit her head left her dazed and unable to use her power to save herself.

Seir saw the entire thing. He quickly teleported into the debris field, grabbed Shadowcat, then teleported again, to a shallow alcove just big enough to shelter them from the falling bits of buildings.

Looking down at the unconscious X-Woman in his arms, Seir felt an unreasonable mix of anger and relief. He bent his head down and pressed a kiss into amber hair. “You really must take better care of yourself,  _meine liebe.”_


	14. Katedra

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Inspired by: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPROKr2EfpM

“My father always said that as you learn one new thing each day, then that day hasn’t been a waste, no matter what else happens. So I’m going to count this as the ‘new thing’ I learned today.” Kitty looked down at the river they had found. The water appeared clear and untainted but that didn’t mean it was safe to drink.

“What exactly have you learned from this fiasco?” asked Wanda, also staring down at the water. It had only been a few hours so they weren’t desperate yet, but they didn’t have any water at all. If they couldn’t figure a way to purify this stuff it was going to lead to a few uncomfortable days before a very unpleasant death.

“Well, I always wanted to know where the stuff Abyss absorbed actually went. It’s not like he consumes it or anything. Now we know.” Kitty grimaced and stripped off her top shirt. “I think if we filter this through my shirt into our coffee mugs, then place the mugs in a fire and boil the water it shouldn’t be too risky.”

“I really didn’t want to find out this way.” Wanda continued to stare at the tea-colored water and made a decision. “You can often find cities down rivers, and we saw a plane earlier. Let’s try following the stream for a while. We can always make a fire later on.”

“You sure we shouldn’t just drink now?”

“It smells like brimstone.”

“ _Everything_ smells like brimstone here.” But Kitty got up and followed the princess. Unfortunately, the stream soon led them to a desert and dried up. Kitty suggested they go back up, but Wanda took the opportunity to fly up and look around. When she landed on the ground she stated. “There’s a building just beyond the foothills here. We can at least try to find some help.”

“After we drink.” Kitty insisted. So they gathered some moss or lichen (it was red so they weren’t sure) and Wanda set fire to it with a hex bolt while Kitty filtered some water from the thin stream.

Somewhat refreshed they set off to the building Wanda had seen. The closer they got through, the slower they went. Wanda was looking down at the soil. “Do you notice something strange?” she asked her companion.

“Lots of footprints? That’s a good thing, isn’t it?” responded the younger girl, puzzled.

“Lots of footprints going in, but none returning. And some of these footprints look … wrong.” They both stopped and knelt to examine the ground more closely.

“These prints remind me of Seir.” Kitty opined.

The Scarlet Witch said nothing but readied a few hex bolts as they got closer. By the time they reached the building both were feeling very uneasy. The appearance of the structure didn’t help. “Are those … people?” whispered Kitty.

“It must have been sculpted that way,” replied Wanda, keeping the same low tone. “Look how they’re integrated into the walls.” She placed one gloved hand on the wall but it pulled away to the side with a groan. She and Kitty exchanged fearful looks.

“In for a penny, in for a pound,” muttered Shadowcat and stepped inside. Wanda followed. After a few steps, there was another groan and the wall closed again leaving them in darkness. A few more minutes of panic, then the younger girl activated her smartphone, providing them with light. Wanda slowed her breathing then gestured the X-Woman over to the wall. After a few minutes of investigation, she stated, “Worse comes to worst, I can blast our way out of here.”

Kitty raised her free hand and phased it through the wall. “Worse comes to worst, just grab me, fly, and I’ll phase us through. I don’t want to fight anyone in here.” The older woman nodded silently.

Escape plan established they set out to explore the structure. For having so many apparent visitors, the building was completely empty. Instead, it was full of regularly spaced trees, reaching up to the arched roof. “It’s like being in a cathedral,” breathed Wanda.

Kitty climbed the roots of one of the trees to get a better look. She took a moment, then fell off her perch with a suppressed scream. Wanda whirled around. “What’s wrong?”

“There are faces in the trees!”

The older woman frowned. “Carved? That’s not-”

“Not carved! Grown! And when I brought the light closer the eyes opened and looked at me!”

Wanda had to suppress her own scream then. “Turn off your phone right now!”

Kitty did. And in the gloom, they saw what they had missed before. Deeper in the building was another light, bobbing as if carried by someone. Terrified, they started to move closer to it, trying to keep as quiet as possible. In the end, they came to an open space, where a humanoid figure stood, looking out over an empty valley. Kitty screwed up her courage and was just about to call out when she found an arm grabbing her from behind, covering her mouth.

She kicked and struggled but was dragged back where she and Wanda had entered and slammed against the door. Horrifyingly she couldn’t see what held her, only a pair of glowing yellow spots that might have been eyes in front of her.

“ _Was_  are you two doing here?” It took a moment for the voice to register.

“Seir?!?” she whispered-screamed. Looking around she saw Wanda in the same predicament. There was a fold in her cloak like it was being twisted by invisible hands.

“Who else? And how did the two of you even get here?”

“Accident with Abyss. Where are we?” Wanda had recovered her composure fast.

A few curse words towards Nils Styger. “You’re in my home, the Brimstone Dimension. Why did he send you here?”

“ _Don’t_  blame Nils,” hissed Wanda. “He was trying to shield us. Mr. Sinister gave him a surge of power that must have accelerated the warping process.”

“Normally I’d be happy to give the two of you a tour of my home but you came at a bad time.”

“That pilgrim?” asked Kitty.

“What that wanderer is here for,” The two yellow eyes looked up through the lacy roof. Above them, they could see a large celestial body, cracked and sullen. Along one edge was a twisted white corona. “There’s no time!”

With that two dark sheets came flying out of nowhere. “Put those on and don’t let the light touch you.”

With barely a moment to spare, Kitty and Wanda hid. Just in time as hot, bright light spilled down from the now uneclipsed sun. The white beams flooded the cathedral, causing the faces in the pillars to flinch and limning the Demon General in harsh colors. From where she stood, Kitty could see down the grand hall to where the pilgrim was standing. As she watched, the man collapsed to his knees. Vines erupted from his chest, planting themselves in the ground and rising up into the air until another pillar stood where the corpse had been.

“Oh my God,” breathed Wanda.

Seir cast an indifferent glance at the new column. “Yes, the Brimstone Dimension is not kind to humans.” He gathered them close, carefully tugging at the black cloth he had thrown over their heads. “Let’s get you back to Genosha.”

“But Seir-”

“I’ll explain later.”


	15. Foresight

“Hi, Nils. Kitty, I need to talk to you. It’s urgent.” Wanda waved to the other members of what was informally known as Genosha’s rehabilitation committee. Shadowcat was surprised to see the princess looking so worried, but dispelled any thoughts of trying to delay or stall her. She waved the others off and followed wordlessly.

Wanda led her up through the palace until they reached a small, dusty chamber, clearly unused for a long time. “It’s the old communication center, from before Scanner joined us.” She booted it up and started manually tuning it to a frequency. “Kitty, I need to contact the X-Men to warn them about my father’s plan.”

The younger woman crossed her arms. “I’ve been waiting for the other shoe to drop for a while. What’s his trick?”

“He’s got a mutant imposter taking the place of Senator Kelly. The imposter’s going to launch the Sentinels at Genosha tonight!”

“What? Why? Wasn’t he shown a future where everyone loses because of the war he’s trying to start?”

“He thinks he can control both sides and choose who loses. Genosha doesn’t have many allies and only the X-Men are in a position to stop this before it escalates.” Frustrated the Scarlet Witch almost hit the panel but the X-Woman grabbed her hand before it could connect.

“I’ve got this.” Kitty adjusted the frequency and quickly connected with the manor. As soon as the connection was made she started speaking. “Hank, we have a Code Guardian going down tonight here in four hours.”

“A Code Guardian? Acknowledged. I’ll inform Logan right away.” With that, the connection was shut. Wanda looked at her friend with wide eyes. “You expected this?”

“Not exactly. Code Guardian just means that the X-Men need to shut down the Sentinel program right now and that the details would take too long to explain. I also gave them the time and place where to meet if the mission’s unsuccessful.” Grey eyes looked into blue. “Now, can we think of anyone else who could help in the fight?”

* * *

“Where are you, you little bugger?” Kitty had searched her room top to bottom and still couldn’t find one of those little bamfs that she knew had been shadowing her every move. She needed to get a message to Seir, and this was the only way she knew how. The only other option would have been letting Nils absorb her again, and she didn’t want to spend however long tramping through the Brimstone Dimension just to find him. The first time was bad enough.

“Dammit, I need to think like a bamf. If I was a fuzzy blue ball of chaos where would I like to spend my time?” A moment was spent in silent contemplation. “I have no idea where bamfs go, but I do know other things they like.” She opened the minifridge in her room and took out the bottle of whiskey Logan had given her for a birthday gift. Pouring out a generous portion she waited. “Here little bamfling. Do me a favor and I’ll give you more.” Within minutes there was a puff of ill-smelling smoke, and a babbling blue creature showed up. While it consumed first one and then a second shot glass of whiskey, she attached a small clip to one tiny, pointed ear. The clip held a memory stick and a written note from her. “Now, take this message to Seir. When he comes back, I’ll give you a third shot of whiskey.”

“Whiskey! Whiskey!” And then it was gone again.

Kitty whispered a quick prayer to God. Genosha was going to need all the help it could get.

* * *

“We don’t have time to evacuate all of Hammer Bay.” Kitty declared to her staff. “And we don’t know what the Sentinels plan of attack will be. So I’ll leave it up to each of you to decide what you deal with first.” She grabbed a marker and placed it over the power plant. “I’m going to try to get the shield that Gambit destroyed back up. Each of you place a marker on what responsibility you’ll be covering or what areas you will warn. If you complete those, it’s your choice to either leave then or come back here to take on more. I will ask that you each accomplish at least one task before running away.”

Nils raised his hand. “Have there been any attempts to contact allies? Maybe the X-Men or anyone else?”

“Wanda and I informed the X-Men before we called this meeting. They’re trying to shut down the Sentinels before they leave the factory, but they’ll be cutting it pretty close.” She hesitated but continued. “I also took the liberty of sending a bamf to Seir, but I don’t know when or even if he’ll show up for this. Wanda sent messages to any countries who are friendly with Genosha on the east coast of Africa, but other than Madagascar we don’t have much hope. Neither Somalia nor Wakanda have the resources to put up a good fight and South Africa isn’t likely to side with us against the Sentinels even if they like our money.”

Nils looked over the map of Hammer Bay, then put a marker on the docks. “We’re sure they’re going for the capital first and not anywhere else?” Kitty nodded. “Hammer Bay’s surrounded by mountains. They’ll have to come up from the sound otherwise they’ll waste too much energy flying over the range. So this is the one place that’s guaranteed to be hit. I’ll take over the evacuation there.”

“I’ll join you,” said Sooraya, grabbing another marker and placing it beside his. “It’s a large area to cover with only one person and if the attack comes early I’m not afraid of getting hit.”

One by one each member of the staff grabbed a marker. Some took only one task, others took several. Kitty didn’t ask for their reasoning. When they were done there were still many tasks left undone and too much territory left uncovered. But Kitty only nodded and dismissed them.

* * *

“Katzchen?”

Kitty turned around in surprise. “Seir? So you did show up!”

“Yes. Wanda’s set off the alert siren-”

“I heard it.”

“And she had me evacuating the district around the water treatment facility.”

The Jewish woman paled. “No one took that area when I was assigning duties. It must have been hit pretty hard.”

“It was. Not just by the robots but when the facility blew it flooded the district. The whole area’s pretty much a bust.” Kitty looked sick with the amount of work that was going to be needed and Seir pulled her into a one-armed hug. After a second she looked up. “Do you know what stopped the attack? I know the Sentinels weren’t destroyed.”

He pressed his lips into a thin line. “Yes. Magneto reprogrammed them. He’s set them off to attack the city they came from. He ordered Wanda to follow up with Genosha’s army.”

“She’s not going to do that.”

“No, she isn’t.” He paused for a brief moment. “She tried to contact the X-Men, but according to … Forge, I think? He said they had already left.”

“Damn.”

“What do you want to do Katzchen?”

“What do you mean?”

“Wanda’s ordered that everyone remain on the island and not follow Magneto? But I can bring you to him easily. Do you want to join the X-Men? Do you want to follow Magneto? Or do you want to stay here?”

She looked around and sighed. “I do want to help the X-Men. And I want to make Magneto pay for what he’s done. But I accepted responsibility for the people of Genosha already. Wanda says the best thing to do is to stay here and rebuild and I agree with her. So here I stay. I’ll just have to trust that my friends are able to deal with the problem.”

She received a sharp, fanged smile in return. “An interesting choice.” He reached out and pulled her to her feet. “Ready to receive our next assignment?”

“Yes.” They vanished in a puff of sulfurous smoke.

* * *

“You did the right thing.” Wanda and Lorna looked at their friend.

“Did I?” asked Wanda. “Genosha, this place wouldn’t exist without Father.”

“Yes. Genosha’s your home and you chose to defend it. There’s nothing wrong with that. And Magneto may have founded this country, but he betrayed it by setting it up to get destroyed as a means of furthering his cause.” If Kitty had any doubts at all, they didn’t show in her face or voice. “But it’s alright to feel sad about banishing him too. He was your father and you both loved him very much.”

“But he was a bad person,” said Lorna. “Surely it’s wrong to love bad people.”

“People are people and very few of them are completely good or bad. And even if he was bad to other people, he was very good to the two of you. It’s not wrong to hurt over losing that.”

Polaris’s face took on a thoughtful expression. “So we weren’t wrong to banish him and we’re not wrong to miss him either?”

“Exactly.” Kitty might have said more, but at that moment the Scarlet Witch started to break out in sobs. The younger woman quickly gathered the princess (or should they call her queen now?) and guided her over to the bed in Lorna’s room. Wanda wrapped her arms around the X-Woman and started to cry in earnest. Deep, body-wracking sobs filled the air. Lorna stayed standing for a little longer but then tears filled her eyes too. Kitty freed up one arm and motioned her over. In a flash, the younger princess was also beside her and crying.

Kitty adjusted her position so she could embrace both of the devastated princesses. Sometimes it helped to be just a little further from the problem. And if she felt like crying too, well neither would begrudge her a few tears of disillusionment.

* * *

Seir got home and just wanted to go to sleep. Today had been just as physically exhausting as the first time he had gone to Genosha to deal with the invasion of Dire Wraiths. Emotionally, however, it had put him through the wringer. The first time he had been there solely for the mission. He hadn’t really known the city or the people involved, it had just been another job for him. It wasn’t the same now. Now he knew the city very well, knew what the streets and plazas and gardens and what they meant to the people. He knew the people, had participated in their lives. He had friends, actual friends there, and he felt their pain almost as clearly as if it had been his own. They’d loved the city and trusted their leaders and been betrayed. The city was destroyed, many of them were dead and even if all the people he cared about had survived, the attack and losses weighed heavily on their hearts.

“Oh good, you’re back.” Ginniyeh again. He didn’t have the patience to deal with any of his siblings right now. “Jillian was looking for you.”

“I really just want to sleep, Ginniyeh. Go tell her to fuck Yidrazil or Ophis if she wants some fun.”

“I’ll pass that along.” She smiled, sharp teeth gleaming in the bloody light. “Father wants to see you as well, although he said he can wait until after you’re rested.”

Now that was important. “Did he say why?”

Her smile grew even larger. “It’s time to reclaim our place in the material world.”


	16. The Draco

“Now is the perfect time to attack.” declared Azazel. “The dimensional walls are weak. Your half-brothers and nephews have grown into their powers. Genosha has been attacked and its defenses are down. We will tear apart this prison by invading the material plane and claim our rightful ownership of the world!” With that, the red demon hoisted a glass in celebration. His generals, from blind Ginniyeh to unusually quiet Seir followed suit.

They spent their last night in either preparation (Yidrazel checked over the troops and weaponry one last time) or revelry (Jillian and Seir had one last tryst and she tried to draw him into an orgy but he declined). As the evening wore on and things quieted down, Ginniyeh drew Seir aside. “Tomorrow, we will try and make the invasion as quick and bloodless as possible. But it has been thousands of years since the troops have had a chance to indulge their bloodlust, and there will be casualties.

I know you have grown fond of some of the leaders on that island. So I’m giving you tonight to go ahead and claim whoever you want and spirit them away. Bring them back here, drop them off into the cells below and I swear that I will allow none to harm them.” He hesitated, but she continued talking. “You’ll never get a better chance to save them.”

Seir bowed his head to his older sister. “Thank you, Ginniyeh. I won’t forget this.”

She smiled. “Just remember that you owe me a favor later.”

“I will.”

* * *

“Kitty! Katzchen!”

Shadowcat whirled around. “Seir?” she hissed. “What are you doing here?”

“Looking for you. What are you doing out in the foothills around Hammer Bay and not asleep in the city?”

“Following Nils.” She pointed over, where he could see a large number of mutants dancing around a bonfire. (Not a bonfire, he knew better. The incipient portal shone and capered like a fire but was much more dangerous.) “He’s been having episodes of sleepwalking that we’ve been trying to control. He asked that I follow him tonight to see where he’s been going.”

Seir cursed to himself in ancient Sumerian. He knew that Azazel had already called his progeny to open up the portal, but he hadn’t realized they were already that close.

“I think I recognize some of those people,” Kitty continued talking. “They’ve been part of the recent refugee influx, now that Wanda’s reopened the borders.”

“You’re right.” Kitty jumped, startled, but Seir had heard the other man sneaking up on them. “For some reason, Genosha’s been infiltrated by a group of mutants. Ones who look very similar to your friend Seir here.”

The man was taller than either of them and very muscular. Not to mention covered in more tattoos than even the Demon General. He shifted around and held out a card to Kitty while giving Seir a suspicious look from yellow and black eyes. “Marcus Skarr, aka Kiwi Black. A private investigator from New Zealand. A couple asked me to find their runaway son. I traced him to Genosha and was about to call them when I found him doing  _this_.” A quick jerk of his chin towards the gathering. “What is this, some sort of cult?”

“No,” said Seir grimly. “It’s an invasion.”

The other two turned to look at him.

“Katzchen, you remember how we first met? With the Dire Wraiths and Belasco?” One slow nod. “The same situation all over again.”

“Is this your fault?” accused Kiwi, getting straight to the heart of the problem.

“No this plan was in the works before I was even born.” Before Seir could explain, there was another interruption. A reporter and her crew had just shown up and was filming the ceremony. The reporter closed in on the apparent leader, a dark-skinned man with a red bandana and a black beard, and began questioning him on the ritual being conducted. “And for what purpose are you conducting this ceremony? All across the island people are watching right now, wondering the same question.”

“This rite will draw the  _true_  rulers of this world back from the Hell the Cheyarafim banished them too. Be prepared to bow before your proper masters, peons!”

“She’s doing this  _live_?” Kitty was aghast. “Seriously, does no one sleep on this island?”

“That fire’s getting bigger.” muttered the Maori. “How? I don’t see them adding any fuel.”

Seir gave up on being discreet. Forget alerting everyone and getting the troops in position, he’d just have to hope everyone was still on guard and would act accordingly. Teleporting in, he shoved his sword through the herald’s back, straight through his heart. The man turned and saw who had stabbed him. He had just enough time to gasp, “Traitor!”, then Seir beheaded him with another sword.

“Citizens of Genosha,” he addressed the frozen camera crew. “This ritual is just the beginning of an interdimensional invasion. All around Hammer Bay there should be many other gatherings like this. Attack the participants! Break up the circles! Otherwise monstrous troops will come pouring in to destroy your city!” He followed his words by turning and hacking at the mutants who made up the circle. Most died silently or had already been drained of their life force, but the last one looked up with confused eyes. “Ssseir?” slurred Nils Styger.

The Demon General froze for a moment. Still, the shimmer in the air had died and all the other members of this gathering were deceased as well. He could probably spare this half-brother. “Nils, hold very still. I need to cut you free from the others.” Seir slashed downwards, freeing Abyss’s hands from the dead bodies that had melted together. Not giving the younger man a chance to recover, he teleported them both back to Kitty.

Kitty’s watch was flashing and she was speaking into it. Giving directions to someone on the other end of the communicator, he realized. Pushing Nils towards her, he turned away. “There must be several dozen of these gatherings on the island. We’ll have to go to destroy each one.”

“And who the hell are you to be giving orders?” challenged Kiwi Black. Kitty was too busy helping Nils to take charge.

“The one who planned out this invasion,” said Seir and teleported away.

* * *

Wolverine stabbed the lion-faced hulk in the back of the head, taking care to twist the claws in so that whatever brains this thing had were scrambled. Kitty’s message had been short but combined with that cosplayer’s live transmission, it had given the X-Men the gist of what they needed to know.

As the brute came down, Wolverine jumped away. He didn’t relax his guard until a hex bolt shot down from the air and incinerated the body. Twisting his head up, he called up to Princess (Queen?) Wanda, “You’re lucky the X-Men were here to help with the rebuilding.”

“I’ll thank you later,” said Wanda absently, more focussed on trying to knock out enough of the cultists to close the portal. “But right now we’ve got an invasion to get through!”

* * *

“I haven’t had the chance to torture any of you Cheyarafim in thousands of years,” the black-winged demon held Angel down and tore out another handful of feathers. “I suppose I should make this last, but why bother? I can spend the next hundred years hunting down every last one of your kind.” A sharp punch broke more bones and the blonde mutant screamed.

Before Yidrazil could enact more punishment, a glowing blue tomahawk came down and decapitated him. The body was shoved off of him, and Angel found a broad hand held out. He gladly grasped the hand and allowed the other, more muscular man to help him up. “Kiwi Black,” the man introduced himself. “I was with Shadowcat when she first got wind of the invasion.”

“Angel of the X-Men. And very grateful for the rescue.” He looked around. All the cultists were either dead or knocked out, difficult to tell in the dark. This Kiwi must have used the leader’s distraction to close the portal. it might have led to a few minutes more of torture, but Angel couldn’t fault his reasoning. “Will you be able to fight?” asked the broader man, bringing his thoughts to the present.

Angel tried to move a wing and cringed. The pain was unbelievable. “Not a chance. I can’t fly either, but I can walk.” The older man nodded. He got an arm around the X-Men’s waist and let the other lean on him as they made their way back to the city. “I think that was the last gathering outside the city. And I know Kitty ordered that med tents be set up all around. I’ll get you to one of those tents before I go searching again.”

Angel would have sagged in relief if he hadn’t already been sagging in pain. “Thank you.”

* * *

Ginniyeh tried to scream, but she didn’t have enough moisture in her body left even for that. As the world faded away, all she could think was “That damned traitor!”

* * *

After all the portals had been closed, Seir found Jillian on the shore at the edge of the city. Her wings were shredded and all her limbs broken. It looked that she had fallen from the air. Without immediate attention, she wasn’t going to make it.

“Seir?” she asked as he pulled her into his lap.

“Yes, Jillian?”

“We failed, didn’t we?”

“Yes, we did.”

“Did anyone else escape?” She coughed, blood spilling from her mouth.

“I saw Father get pulled back into the Brimstone Dimension. Not sure about anyone else.”

“That’s okay. Father can try again in twenty to thirty years. He’ll just have to choose a different weak point in the barrier. Genosha was-” A hacking bark that did nothing to clear her lungs of blood. “Genosha was much better defended than you told us.”

He stayed silent. No reason to hurt her when she’d be gone in a few minutes.

“You’ll do a better job next time, right?”

“I will.” There wouldn’t be a next time.

“Seir? Please kiss me one last time.”

He leaned down and pressed his lips to hers, kissing her deeply. He wasn’t bothered by the taste of blood. When he pulled back her eyes were already glazing over and she had ceased to breathe. He held her for a little longer to be certain that her heart had stopped too.

When he looked up, Senyaka and Melloncamp were both there. Letting his sister slip from his arms, he discarded his weapons and put his hands on his head.

* * *

“They’re not waking up,” whispered Nils.

“No, they’re not. Aside from you, none of them are recovering.” Kitty was equally quiet. “The doctors don’t know what to do. We’ve got them on IVs and tried everything from electroshock to psychic screaming. But Jean says that when she scans them, it’s like there’s nothing there.”

“Is there no hope then?”

“I don’t know.” The silence was broken by another bed flatlining.

* * *

“I hope you understand why I’m doing this.”

“ _Ja, ja_. Despite going out of my way to save your city, you still can’t trust me.”

“You passed on critical information about our infrastructure and defenses to a hostile party. You changed your mind at the last minute to help us, but that doesn’t wash out your actions from before.” Wanda stepped up and clasped the inhibitor collar around Seir’s throat. “Hopefully you won’t have to stay here too long. Just a few weeks, no more than a month. Long enough for Genosha to recover a bit. Then I’ll call the full council together to make a decision on your fate. We’ll take into account everything you’ve done for and to us. With a bit of luck, the council will issue you a full pardon.”

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”

Wanda activated the collar then stepped outside the cell. Senyaka locked the door and activated the barrier, before standing guard with Mercury. They were taking no chances with this prisoner.

* * *

Far away a woman watched a replay of the recent events on Genosha. Every time she reached the end of the transmission she started it over again.

“He’ll pay for this with his life,” she promised herself.


	17. Family Ties

It was Talia’s turn to play lookout when the ship finally reached Genosha. She called down to the Captain, who quickly slowed the ship before they crashed into the shore. Before any of the refugees could climb into the dinghies to get to shore, the metal panels that made up the harbor walls rose in the air and created a gangplank for the mutants to exit the ship. Floating in the air in front of them was a young woman with green hair in a crop top and pants. “Welcome to Genosha,” she greeted them. “Er, we’re not exactly looking our best right now-” Indeed, they could see that the city behind her was partially demolished and in the process of reconstruction. “But rest assured that despite recent invasions we will do our best to protect mutants from those who would harm them. Also, if you have any construction skills or experience, please let us know because your help would be very appreciated.”

The mutants hesitantly got off the ship, clumping together for comfort. Talia sighed, but sauntered off by herself, hoping to inspire some confidence with her display. Unfortunately for her, she was immediately confronted upon getting off the gangplank. “Halt!” said a man, conjuring a whip out of light. “Who are you and what are you doing here?”

Talia noticed no one else was receiving this treatment, although the refugees were now giving her and her confronter a wide berth. “Uh, my name is Talia Lake and I’m here to avoid persecution for my appearance.”

“Senyaka, what’s going on down there?” The green woman floated down to their level.

“Take a look.” The man, Senyaka apparently, deliberately snatched the cap off Talia’s head and turned her face towards the woman in charge.

“I see,” she said grimly. Refocusing on Talia she asked her, “I take it you’ve been on this boat the past week and haven’t had access to the news?”

“That’s right,” Talia answered, puzzled.

“And what is your mutant ability?” The blue mutant hesitated for a second. “I’m afraid this is rather important.”

“Low-level telepathy and body possession.”

“Not teleportation? Or any other abilities that can be used to cross dimensional barriers?”

“Nothing like that. Why?”

Senyaka and the verdant woman exchanged glances. “I’ll take her to meet my sister,” the woman offered. “Can you handle the rest?”

“I’ll call Mercury in for back-up.”

The metal around Talia rose in the air. She wobbled a bit, trying to regain her balance. The metalkinetic waited for her to steady then levitated them both towards the palace. She ignored Talia’s questions on the way there.

The shining walls split easily for them and soon Talia found herself in front of the ruler of Genosha, Princess (Queen?) Wanda. The younger girl swallowed nervously, whatever caused the authorities to single her out must have been  _really_  important.

Cool blue eyes evaluated her thoroughly, then turned to the woman who must have been her sister. Polaris answered the unspoken question. “Not a teleporter. And she’s been on a boat for the past few weeks trying to get here.”

“I see,” the intense gaze was switched back to Talia. “I’m going to need your name, abilities and a detailed explanation for why you came to Genosha.”

“My name is Talia Lake. I have some telepathy, able to send and receive other telepaths’ thoughts. I’m also capable of possessing people.” She swallowed nervously. “I came to Genosha from the US to escape the MRD program. I’m also … I’m also hoping I can find my father here.”

“Scanner?”

“Aside from not giving her middle name, she didn’t lie or obfuscate. I would ask what happened to her mother though.”

“She died last year. It took this long to wrap up everything and sell the house.”

“And why do you think your father is here?”

“Mom always said I looked exactly like him. I’m the product of a one night stand, so I don’t know anything else about him. I hoped if he was still alive, that I would be able to find him here. Where else would someone who looks like me go?”

Princess Wanda sighed and shifted on her throne (it couldn’t have been comfortable in that outfit and the seat had no padding). “I’m sorry to put you through the wringer like this, but Genosha was just invaded by mutants with a very similar appearance to you. They were trying to free a hostile, demonic army from an alternate dimension prison. We had to be certain you were not part of the plot … and I fear the citizens would be disinclined to give you a warm welcome.”

Oh no. “Like me? So my father-”

“Most of the invaders are dead. There are two survivors left, who betrayed the demons and sided with Genosha. I don’t suppose it’s impossible that one of the two could be your father. Could she be one of yours, Abyss?”

Talia realized that two people had entered the throne room behind her. One was a young woman with amber hair, just a few years older than her. The other, Talia caught her breath, the other was a man even older than the woman. He didn’t quite look the same, his skin was a little darker, he didn’t have a tail or fur, and his hands had the normal number of fingers. But he was deep blue with the same pupilless gold eyes that she had. Had she found her real father?

“I haven’t done anything with anyone that could cause pregnancy. Also, she’s clearly too old to be my child, she looks like she’s seventeen!”

Oh, that was disappointing. “I’m eighteen.”

“Then it might be you-know-who.” Talia had ignored the woman who had come in with the blue man, but her attention was caught when she spoke up. Yellow eyes met grey and she received a small smile in return. Talia felt herself flush under her fur.

“That’s certainly a possibility. She looks more like him than Azazel, although that’s no guarantee.” Wanda made a decision. “Kitty, show her to a guest room. I’ll have the guards introduce them tomorrow.” The grey-eyed woman smiled and held her hand out. “Here. I’m sure you’re looking forward to a bath and some sleep in a real bed.”

* * *

Talia spent the night in confused luxury. In the morning, the woman with pigtailed auburn hair, who was apparently the famous Shadowcat, delivered breakfast in her room then brought her down to an interrogation chamber. “We’ll bring the other survivor here. He looks a lot like you.” Shadowcat turned to leave the room but hesitated at the door. “He’s also being imprisoned due to being part of a conspiracy to invade Genosha. Senyaka, Mercury and I will be right on the other side of the mirror so if anything goes awry we’ll be right there to stop it and protect you.”

Well wasn’t that food for thought. She’d found her father … and he turns out to be some sort of terrorist. “Chin up, Nocturne,” she whispered to herself. “They could still be wrong about him being your father.”

The man with the covered face and whip entered, leading another man with manacled hands and inhibitor collar. Senyaka opened the cuffs but left the collar before leaving the room. The other man rubbed his wrists and watched the Acolyte leave before turning to Talia.

She stopped breathing in shock. If Talia had thought Abyss looked similar to her, then this man blew that comparison out of the water. Same eyes, same hands, and feet, she could even see a spade tail flickering out of a red and grey cloak. Heck, they even had the same nose, aquiline and just slightly too big for their faces. The man smiled and fangs flashed white in his indigo face. “Well, this is awkward.”

“I don’t suppose there could be any doubt … “

“No. I can smell our shared blood.” Alright, that was disturbing. Talia had enhanced reflexes and senses but she couldn’t tell they were related just by smell.

“You must be Clea Lake’s daughter.”

“You can tell that just by smell?” she shouted incredulously.

“Partially. Also, you look very much like her. Clea was rather distinct, even among my conquests.”

“And how many ‘conquests’ have you had?” Talia had a sneaking suspicion that she wasn’t going to like the answer.

“A couple dozen at the least. I usually didn’t keep track.”

Aaannnddd she was right.

“If it makes you feel better, most of your half-brothers died in the invasion. The Neyaphem used them as batteries to open up portals bring our armies from the Brimstone Dimension to Genosha.”

That didn’t help at all. Talia reached behind her, trying to find the buzzer to open the door. Thankfully someone opened it behind her and she ran out.

* * *

“I thought you might have some questions.” Talia looked up. Shadowcat stood there with a bottle of water held out to the blue mutant. “The Acolytes figured I’d probably be the best person to answer them.”

“Thanks,” she took the water and drank. “Why haven’t you executed him?”

The older girl made a face. “He might have been part of the invasion, but he betrayed them to help us. Without him, we wouldn’t have had any warning or known how to close the portals. And it’s not like it’s treason, Seir never swore an oath of loyalty to Genosha.”

Seir. Talia realized she hadn’t even gotten that man’s name.

“Currently the Council that runs Genosha is debating what to do with him. We don’t want to execute someone who’s helped us, and not just with the invasion, but he can’t be trusted if we let him go free. Right now he’s being held as a prisoner of war.”

“What else has he done that’s actually good?”

“He fought off two other invasions, one of some alien Dire Wraiths and another of the Sentinels. He’s assisted the X-Men in missions against the MRD and the Brotherhood of mutants. Wanda, Lorna, Nils and I all considered him our friend.” The X-Woman frowned. “Of course, that’s why this betrayal hurt so badly. We should have guessed when he said he was working for a party with an interest in Genosha but we allowed our feelings to get the better of us. That’s why we’re leaving the verdict and sentencing to the Council.”

Talia laughed and was surprised how bitter she sounded. “So this Seir’s a great guy except he was working for some bad people?”

“I wouldn’t say that. You did hear how he had a bunch of kids just so he could sacrifice them for the portals.” Telegraphing her movements, Shadowcat placed a gentle hand on Talia’s shoulder. “If you want to know more about him, I could arrange for some time for you to talk to the other people who know him. Or you could visit him while we’re waiting for the Council to come to give their judgment. On the other hand, if you don’t ever want to see him again and just want to forget about it, we could do that too. It’s your decision.”

“Do I need to make up my mind now?”

“Of course not! You probably should by the end of the month though, since that’s the deadline for the Council.”

“Then I’ll tell you tomorrow.”

* * *

“So I finished the book I was reading with Seir.” The man had been surprisingly charming, it’s easy to see how he had wormed his way into the favor of most of Genosha’s rulers (official or unofficial). Nocturne found herself liking him despite their first meeting, although she definitely wasn’t comfortable enough to call him Father or anything similar.

“Do you want the next one in the series? I’ve got to warn you though, it’s a lot darker than this one.”

“Actually I’d like to take a breather. Not that I don’t like the series, but I want to share something a little more light-hearted before going back to that.”

Kitty took a bite of her lunch while thinking. “Maybe something by Niven? He’s usually pretty action-oriented and has a rather dry sense of humor. He’s sci-fi though, not fantasy.”

“That’s alright, we like both-” An explosion rocked the plaza, cutting off the conversation.

“If that’s the fourth invasion for this year, I’m going to scream,” the older girl muttered. Shadowcat was up and moving and Nocturne followed her, despite not really being trained for combat. But Genosha didn’t exactly have a large population of magic practitioners, so the younger girl had decided to join the Acolytes as part of the island’s defenses.

“Talia, go to the evacuation centers with the civilians,” Shadowcat ordered. “You’ve barely started your combat training. If it turns out that we need your magic expertise Wanda will send Blink to get you.”

“But-”

“Talia! Talia Josephine Lake, you come out right this minute. How dare you run off without informing anyone! I’m taking you home right now!”

Grey eyes met yellow. “Well, I guess you’re staying after all. Someone you know, I take it?”

“My deadbeat step-dad/guardian.” Talia stepped out and started shouting. “Way to show up late Stephen! The house was sold two months ago! And everyone else threw a party to wish me luck when I decided to move to Genosha, you just couldn’t be bothered to actually check in on me at any time during the past year!”

* * *

“Scanner, what’s going on out there?” Seir’s voice rang hollow from the metal sphere he was encased in.

“Apparently, your daughter’s mother’s ex-husband showed up. Sounds like he was supposed to be her guardian, but looks like he didn’t do a very good job of it. She hasn’t seen him in the year since her mom died and it took him over two months to realize she was here.”

“So someone’s actually a worse parent than I am?”

“You set up your sons to be drained to death for an invasion, you’re not going to win the Father of the Year award either.” Scanner continued to watch the fight. She could only see the red-cloaked man (a Dr. Stephen Strange) but she could definitely hear everything the newly christened Nocturne was screaming at him.

“Crud, I hate magic users,” she muttered under her breath.

“Does Talia need help?”

“He’s threatening to start knocking down buildings if she doesn’t return with him. Abyss and Shadowcat tried to sneak up on him but he’s spelled them both to sleep. Wanda’s firing at him too but he keeps teleporting away.”

“Well, then.” Scanner heard a snap then a bamf behind her. When she checked the cameras, all that was still in the sphere was a broken inhibitor collar.

* * *

“I’m eighteen years old! I don’t have to obey you any longer!”

“Talia you might be eighteen but your mother put me in charge of you-”

“ _Grandpa_  was more helpful than you were! He helped me get the best price for the house! You never cared before so stop trying to interfere with my life now!”

“Talia Josephine Lake, I am trying my best-

“No, you’re not! You’ve always resented the fact that mother had me with some other guy! That’s why you and mom divorced!”

“There were several reasons-”

“Even my real dad’s better than you! At least he has the excuse of not knowing I existed! You never even tried to accept me!”

“ _Danke, meine tochter_.” A puff of rancid smoke and iron arms locked around Dr. Strange. “Allow me to rid Genosha and you of this trash.”

Another BAMF! And the two of them were gone.

* * *

Stephen didn’t know where they had ended up. The sky was dark with a red supergiant for a sun. The smell of brimstone filled the air. He was surrounded by empty desert except for a strange, viney cathedral in front of him. “Best of luck trying to escape  _this_ prison,  _Herr Doktor.”_

Another puff of smoke and his abductor was gone. Strange took out the Orb of Agamotto and tried to find a portal back. No matter how hard he scryed, he found nothing, no portals or magic in this world. Just more red-rocked wasteland, farther than even his Eye could see.

* * *

Seir teleported back to Genosha, where Polaris was fixing the buildings that Strange had destroyed. Wanda looked down her nose at him (an interesting feat when they were the same height) and tapped her foot impatiently. “Back to the sphere with the inhibitor collar?” he asked wryly.

“Inhibitor collar yes,” she agreed. “But lucky for you, the Council issued their verdict just before this most recent mess. You’ll be earning your Genoshan citizenship by acting as a government agent. You’ll have to wear the collar when you’re not on missions, and you’ll always have someone watching you but you don’t have to go back to the sphere.”

“ _Danke_ , Princess. I’ll make sure you don’t regret your leniency.”


	18. Revenge

_Prologue:_

“So what was the plan here?” Seir’s image was being projected onto the screen to allow the Council to question him while still being contained in the prison below Hammer Bay.

“Dimension traveling abilities were unique to Azazel. Up until I was born, he was the only member of the Neyaphem who could escape the Brimstone Dimension. Upon realizing he could pass the trait along, he started a campaign to sire as many children as possible to use to open portals to this plane.”

“How many children? Why were the only cultists found male?”

“I don’t know how many. I know that my contribution to the plan was several dozens, I assume Azazel did the same. Probably very few children, we stopped about a dozen years ago under the assumption that those who were too young wouldn’t be useful. As for the gender disparity, the cross-dimensional ability was found almost solely in the male children, female children tend to have different abilities.”

“Why Genosha?”

“There are several areas where the dimensional wall is weak. Genosha was chosen because there was already infrastructure and a population center here. Production centers could be converted to making more weapons and the population would serve as a hostage to buy time for the army to ramp up to its tactics and equipment.” There was a murmur of discontent. Bad enough to be invaded, but were specifically chosen because you were deemed too weak to defend yourself was worse. Wanda could foresee the Council pushing to enlarge the defense budget next quarter.

It didn’t look good for Seir.

“What about the surviving cultists? Most of them were killed during the invasion, but the survivors have lapsed into comas. Is there a possibility of them waking up and in what condition will they be in?”

“Except for a few heralds who had greater amounts of vitality, and they were all killed, the sacrifices will not survive. They were to be drained to power the portals and even if they survived that, Ginniyeh overwrote their minds in order to get them to come to Genosha and participate. Even if they were to wake up, they’d be blank shells, with no personality of their own.” One of the council members made a shocked cry and left the room. Wanda recognized her from the hospital. She had an only son, 17, who had been part of the portal batteries. This must have been devastating to her.

“The Council will recess for the rest of the day. We will continue to question the prisoner tomorrow, starting at the same time.” The Supreme Judge banged his gavel. “Court dismissed!”

* * *

“So it’s been six months. What did the council say?” Kitty passed a wrapped sandwich to Seir and a burrito to Senyaka.

“I no longer have to spend all my time in prison, but will be moved to the barracks. I still have to be watched 24/7 and the collar remains too. But it’s progress.”

“And Nocturne?”

“Distinct ‘you-are-not-my-father’ vibes from her, but otherwise, I think she’s warming up to me. How’s her training going?”

“She’s good, very good. I’m recommending that her first mission be next month, rather than waiting the full year.”

“I guess she gets that from me. How’s the rebuilding?”

No answer. Kitty took a sip from her soda and Senyaka concentrated on his burrito.

“I see I’m not trustworthy enough for that.” They finished their lunch talking about inconsequential things. Just before she left, Kitty informed him that he would be receiving a new defense lawyer, well, new defense intern. Shadowcat’s rehabilitation program was still dreadfully understaffed. She wasn’t going to waste her legally trained members on a case like this. Seir wasn’t pushing to be freed anyway, his evaluation would be conducted by Genosha’s Council instead. “Her name’s Amanda Sefton, and she used to be a flight attendant. Try not to scare her off.”

* * *

Seir wasn’t sure what he thought of his new therapist/legal advisor. At times she seemed rather attracted to him, flirtatious beyond the point of professionalism. Yet there was something very cold about her, the affection she showered him with never reached her eyes. It was too suspicious for him to take advantage of, so rather than accepting her broad hints that she could get him free and off the island, he settled on letting the council decide the pace of his redemption.

“This is ridiculous Seir. It’s been a year since the invasion and the most the Council has done for you is move you from the underground prison to the barracks.”

“For someone who used to spend most of his time underground, this is quite the improvement.”

“You’ve been working for them, without pay I might add, for a year now. They should at least remove the collar or dial back the surveillance. I’ll bring that up during the next evaluation.” Seir shrugged. Honestly, he was more concerned with building up the broken relationships with his friends and getting to know his new daughter. As long as the Council wasn’t isolating him he couldn’t care less.

Amanda put her hand on his shoulder. “You’ll be free soon enough. Then perhaps we could see if things go a little further between us.” She leaned up and kissed him deeply.

(The exact type of kiss he’d use when telling women exactly what they want to hear. Just part and parcel of a well-played seduction.)

Mercury locked the door behind the blonde woman then turned to the demon with a quirky expression on her face, half disbelieving smile, half professional disgust. “She’s a little strange, don’t you think?”

* * *

“What do you think of your defense intern?” Kitty had stopped by the barracks to talk to him and update him on Nocturne’s first mission.

“She’s not very professional. Also, she seems a little too involved in my case.”

The younger woman snorted. “Your case is the only one she’s getting involved in. I gave her six files to work on and as far as anyone can tell, the other five are just gathering spider webs. Sooraya and Nils both want her out, and I agree.”

“ _Warum_  do you need my opinion then?”

“If you had liked her, I would have kept her just for you while moving the other cases to different staff members. But if you also feel she’s doing a bad job, then I can fire her without any regrets.”

“ _Bitte_  do so. Someone that incompetent wouldn’t have lasted a day among the Neyaphem.”

* * *

“Hsst, Seir. I need to talk to you.”

“Amanda, I already heard that you were being replaced as my representative. I approved the change.” The blue man buried his face in his pillow. He could get by on less sleep than an ordinary human, but he still needed some sleep. And he had a mission coming up in the morning. “Go away, we have nothing to talk about.”

“What if I told you the Council was trying to pull a Uriah Gambit on you for your next mission?”

“I’d be impressed. I’ve been expecting them to do it for the past several months.”

“What if I told you I had information on your mother?”

“Unless you’ve got her tied up somewhere so I can kill her, not interested.”

“Something about the X-Men?”

“Kitty would tell me if I needed to know.”

“Seir please!”

He sat up, seething. “I don’t know where you get the impression that I’m desperate enough to want your advances, but here it is spelled out. N-O. Is that clear enough for you?”

She stepped back. “And here I was hoping to get you someplace isolated. I guess there’s no point in being subtle.” Amanda’s features started shifting, becoming … well her hair was longer and straighter and her bosom was a bit fuller. But Seir’s met plenty of metamorphs on Genosha, this barely counted.

“Do I even know you?”

“We never met before Shadowcat introduced us. But you’ve met my brother. And killed him on International TV too.”

“I’ve killed lots of people. You’ll have to be more specific.” He could guess though. The timing was right for just one thing. And only the first gathering he had dealt with had been televised.

He grabbed the dagger under his pillow and slashed upwards. The metal of the inhibitor collar screamed then broke. Unfortunately, he couldn’t aim the knife well while trying to dodge the fireballs she conjured. The collar was off, but he ended up slashing himself in the face. The edge had missed his eye, but now there was blood pouring out to blind him.

He risked a blind teleport to the nearest armory. The sudden absence of her target confused Amanda, forcing her to search for him. Meanwhile, Seir took the opportunity to bandage his face (just quick strips torn from his shirt) and summon the bamfs to watch the blonde.

He looked around then laughed. “Sorceress, not mutant.” he reminded himself. And I’m bleeding already.” He looked down at the bamfs. “Give me a half-hour free. An hour would be even better. Then lead her here.”

The blue creatures giggled and poofed away.

* * *

Lorna stared at the glowing, flying woman in front of her. “That’s definitely not the power she listed on her citizenship papers.” She peeled apart the divider walls and used them to form a cell around the woman. A few force blasts got through, but that was easily fixed, and more metal was pulled up until it resembled the sphere they had put Seir in.

Then the woman teleported out. She aimed several fireballs at Lorna, but the flying mutant found them easy to dodge.

“I don’t have time for this.” The blonde screamed and flew away.

“What was that all about?” asked the confused Polaris.

* * *

The nice thing about Hex Bolts, as Wanda had discovered long ago, was that they didn’t have to travel in a straight path if she didn’t want them too. True, it was harder to use that ability in a fight when you had to make sure you didn’t hit your allies, but one lone rogue who was making a target of herself in the air?

“You will stop protecting my brother’s murderer and bring him out-” Two hex bolts twisted in midair then came down to form a large X, with the joint right where the woman was floating. She crashed down but got up again and started running away.

“Should we sound the evacuation alarm?” asked Scanner.

“I’ve seen Fever Pitch do more damage when he was drunk. Let the patrols hunt her down. You can call up a few reserves to keep everything at full strength but whoever this woman is, she’s not worth our time.”

* * *

“You … “ Amanda hissed at her erstwhile boss. “A few months more and I could have seduced him into compliance. But you wouldn’t give me a chance.”

Kitty tilted her head, her grey eyes amused. She walked through the barrage of fireballs, shielding, and objects that the sorceress threw at her like a poltergeist. “I was going to recommend that you join a different department in the government. But now I think I’ll just beat you up.” She feinted twice towards Amanda’s face, then followed it up with a blow to the solar plexus. Then another. Then a third. After that, the blonde teleported away … and nearly got a hammer blow to the back of the neck.

Shadowcat pouted when the second teleport was far enough that she couldn’t see the blonde. She’d come up with some techniques for fighting a teleporter (just because Seir was being good was no reason to be complacent) and this had seemed like the perfect opportunity to try them out.

* * *

Nils woke up to the bang of something hitting the wall outside. Rubbing his eyes, he saw Sooraya there, drinking something that smelled warm and caffeinated to his sleepy mind. God, he couldn’t wait for this audit to be done.

“Are we under attack?” he asked Dust.

“Yeah, but don’t worry about it. Polaris, Mellencamp, and Blink have it under control. It’s Amanda by the way. I think she may be drunk.”

The Swiss man nodded and stared down at the paperwork he’d been busy with before falling asleep. He wondered if it was worth trying to make it to his bed or if he should just copy Sooraya’s example and drink more coffee.

* * *

The little blue rats she’d been chasing finally clumped around a large metal (all of Hammer Bay was metal) shed. “So that’s where your master’s been hiding? Too bad I’ve found him.” She flew forward and bashed in the door.

There she saw him, surrounded by equipment hidden under drop cloths. “You’ve boxed yourself in,” she crowed. “Now you’re trapped with no way out.”

“No Jimaine Szardos, practitioner of the Winding Way.” She started back. “Yes, I recognized the magic you were using. Azazel may have underestimated technology, but he was quite astute to the occult side of things and made sure his Generals were familiar with the various teachings. Once I knew what you were using, it was easy to deduce your identity.”

“You may be familiar with magic, but you’re no user yourself. You can’t hope to match me on this battlefield.”

“Which is your saving grace. Nocturne was much better taught than you and her Path does not wax and wane the way yours does. Fortunately, she’s on a mission otherwise she would have wiped the floor with you after the first attack.” Incensed by the comparison, Amanda hurled two fireballs at the man. He teleported out of the way, but when she tried to do the same, she was horrified to find she was stuck in place.

The door slammed behind her, and she found herself unable to open it. Was Polaris holding it in place? Then she heard the murderer’s voice. “You’re right, I can’t match you as a magician. However, I don’t need to. All I need to do is keep you in one spot for less than a minute.

Amanda called up more fire. If she couldn’t get through the door, then the walls would be fine instead. She hurled two more fireballs, but then saw what had been under the drop cloths. Not equipment as she had thought. Ammonium Nitrate. And she’d just set off several fires in the shed.

She tried to teleport away again but nothing happened. She aimed force bolts at the walls but they’d been reinforced while she was distracted. The door was also jammed into place, still preventing her from leaving that way. As a last-ditch attempt to save herself she summoned up all the shielding she could.

Amanda’s shields were primarily focussed on solid, kinetic projectiles. They did nothing against things such as blast waves or the heat produced. Not that it mattered. They weren’t good enough to stop the metal projectiles Seir had added to the fertilizer either.

BOOM!

* * *

Even with the warning, the explosion did quite a bit of harm to the naval yard. Polaris shielded everyone from debris and the fires were quickly extinguished. But there was still a huge crater where there had formerly been a dry dock. Kitty and Wanda locked down at the damage. “That’s amazing,” Kitty breathed. Wanda pinched the bridge of her nose, trying to head off an incipient headache. It wasn’t working.

Both turned to look at Seir. “It was self-defense?” He offered meekly. He was pretty sure he could get away if they decided to execute him, but that wasn’t his ideal outcome.

“You are so lucky that she was ranting about killing you to everyone she met,” mumbled Wanda.

“So back to the sphere?”

“No. But the Council was going to remove the inhibitor collar tomorrow. I think you’ve set that back another six months.”


End file.
